Turn of Events: Reloaded
by Taijen
Summary: Rewrite. Sasuke Uchiha, son of Konoha's Yellow Flash and Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi lives life battling against foes and friends alike. All to reach his dream of Hokage, no matter the risk. Can the young shinobi look toward the future and grow into his own heroic legacy, or fall into the cracks of venegance that surrounds his past? AU
1. Tragic Beginnings for A New Tommorrow

**Hey everyone Taijen here, sorry for the confusion but this is the 1st chapter of the reloaded version of Turn of Events. Hopeful with my improved writing style may I do this right. Anyway sorry for any confusion and enjoy the fic!**

**Chapter 1 **

**REVISED**

**DISCLAIMER : I OWN NOTHING**

**"Example" - Loud talking, Screaming, Justus **

_'Example' - Character thoughts_

* * *

The village laid in total devastation as far as the eye could see, ruins of the great wall that once surrounded the broken village now just piles of rubble. With the crumbling buildings that made up Konohagakure all matching the dreaded mood. Minato Namikaze, Champion of Konoha, stared at the very beast that caused damage to befall his home. The Nine-Tailed fox, a Biju, a beast compassed of pure and raw demonic chakra. While its tamer stood among its head watching it do his work.

"Minato-kun!" The blonde shinboi turned to see his close friend and trusted brother, appear to his left panic written all over his face. Kosatu Uzumaki long-time trusted ally and pal.

"Minato I can't sit back and let you fight the Kyuubi alone!" the brunette shinobi hollered out.

"Don't be stupid Kosatu you need to be with Kushina, now with the _nine-tails_-"

"She's gonna be fine , Sarutobi-sama has emergency off-duty medical shinboi taking care of her at the hospital with the fleeing villagers"

Kosatu threw a glance at his long time pal, he could see the fatigue that was greatly expressed throughout Minato's actions. It took true skill and intellect to fight off a Tailed Beast, and this was the strongest one of them all. Kosatu couldn't help but feel useless this should have been his fight, he should have stopped that masked bastard before he could break Kushina's seal.

"You stubborn block-head of a shinobi.." Minato sighed outwardly. But something inside sparked his will, whatever pushed Kosatu into overdrive was apparently contagious. Minato give a bitter sweet smirk, he reached into his cloak tinkering around in it. Quickly finding the desired items, Minato tossed one of his special marker kunai to Kosatu and solider pills. "Solider pills?"

"Not just normal solider pills, enhancer pills. Jiraya-san give them to me, they were modified by the legendary medical ninja Tsunade of The Sanin. Chakra increase, speed boost, senses and muscle reflexes increase beyond normality.. but you could-"

"Die" Kosatu's brown eyes showed no hint of surprise as he answered in more of a statement and in less of a question. Finishing Minato's rant, not caring much for the consequences.

"Yeah you're gonna need the help, in the past you could only handle _Hiarshin_ technique with the Genma and Raido. Now its just you and me."

The roar of the Nine-tails made the ground before them tremble, a large amount of chakra begun to become heavily visible. As they begun to focus and gather at the Nine-tails' mouth. Creating a compressed sphere of demonic chakra. "Destroy them all demon fox!" The demon's Sharingan eyes spun wildly as it let loose its rage. Hurling the orb toward the Hokage monument toward the awaiting shinboi.

"Now!" both men yelled out simultaneously, they grasped each other wrists jumping toward the oncoming attack, it that tore a path through the rubble that it surround by the raw chakra it gave off.

Minato twisted his being in a launching state, whipping his body around as he looked toward Kosatu in confirmation. Minato uncoiled his muscles flinging, Kosatu with all his might, faster toward the tailed beast bomb. At that same moment Minato rocketed his kunai toward the sky , and in a blink disappeared as a flash of gold out of existence in mid-air.

Kosatu steeled his nerves just before he started to set the counter into place, the bright light of the chakra orb starting to blind him, he felt his body sting ,from his velocity toward the blazing ball, all over as he accelerated toward the attack. Many were horrified by the events they witnessed an object impact against the energy, Kosatu was completely overcame by the attack!

Wrong they were, it seemed as though some force was slowly pushing through the sphere. The night sky seemed to be absorbing it, wrong they were again as a golden flash shot through where the attack should have been.

A great tremor violently shook across through the area, scaring many as miles away the tailed beast bomb detonated. Kosatu succeeded in maneuvering the attack away from the village. Managing his control over the technique to change objects complete course, such as high level explosions.

"Impossible" the cold voice of the masked Sharingan user erupted as he begun the process once again, that was until a golden flash washed over his very being. In a spur of a couple of seconds both Kosatu and masked men were gone.

The Kyuubi completely froze in place without its master there it seemed to awake from its trance, the Sharingan fading from Kyuubi's eyes and the slitted crimson flashing dangerously. Its bloodlust boiled over Kyuubi began to rampage without any sense at all, villagers screamed and fled the Nine-Tails continued its vicious slaughterfest once it was broken from its bondage.

Among the chaos a fallen random villager yelled at " Look toward the sky everyone!" Soon a large-scale brilliant blue hue tinted the majority of the village, but the Nine-Tails didn't seem to notice it. Quickly a random anbu yelled out to the crowd of gathered villager "Clear out you morons!"

"Run our savior returns!" the crowd began to flee but somehow cheered on as they ran from the danger zone.

The clouds parted as a large ball of compressed chakra the size of full building busted from the sky above the village, driving toward the unsuspecting demon. A loud buzzing that seemed to harmony of a million metal tools grinding fulled the area, Kyuubi's slitted eyes finding the source.

'_I'm not sure how much chakra I'll have after.. but It's time I use my grandest techquine..inspired by my son..The..'_

**"Father Rasengan" **

The gyrating sphere proved to be entirely fatal. The jutsu slammed upon the head of the biju with great accuracy and fierce determintion. The thunderous clap of the jutsu made the very earth quake under the sudden shockwave that exploded from the impact, while the demon was crushed by Minato's Rasengan.

As the dust settled and the roaring of the justu disappeared, many came out of their make-shift covers. The villagers near gradually stood and stalked to a safe distance away. They all stood civilian and shinboi alike were frozen, awestruck by their Hokage's strength.

"Lord Hokage has saved us!"

The volume quickly rose back to abnormal levels as the villagers raved and cheered about. Praising Minato for his actions and abilities. All clapping for the tired man who stood leaning against the ears of the biju. Minato slumped against the Kyuubi's ear, letting his body get what it wanted. He felt the haze cloud his brain, the resolve leaving him. While he lowered his eyelids.

Just as all seemed well a low growling that was able to even pierce through the cheering crowd, and reached all ears. Had quickly dissolved the cries of joy as Minato felt his body acting alone, he quickly forced himself up. Landing infront of the beast, meeting the Nine-tails as its slitted eyes blinked groggily back to life.

"Run now!" Minato uttered

The villagers scattered like caught mice, fleeing and screaming once more but making sure to get farther away.

Kyuubi obviously pissed by the attack he launched against it, as smoke still rose from it singed fur. Minato leaped back as the gigantic paw of the demon slammed down in his former position. He needed to deal with the Nine-Tails once and for all, it seemed to be even more fearsome as he bellowed great roars.

'_Damn my luck, my attack was just enough to knock it out!' _Minato mentally panicked, he called upon his archives which other referred to as a _brain. _Minato flashed in and out of existence randomly across the terrain, clearly irritating the creature further as it failed to crush him. The whole time the young kage had his hands in the ram seal, as he focused on two tasks. Not dying and chakra sensory.

'_Where are you Kosatu?, I need to get a feel for Kosatu's marker..' _The blonde Hokage stopped teleporting, quickly he threw one of his special kunai toward the nine-tails. Minato shimmered in a gold aura quickly vanishing in a burst of speed, before snatching the kunai out of the air before it struck the beast. He stood atop the fox's nose, he smirked slighty in triumph.

"Found you.."

Before anyone could blink a golden light shone upon the village brightly like a supernova star, as the village watched the light overshadow and take the demon fox and the Hokage. And just like that the Hokage and the Tailed Beast left the village. Not a speck of dust gave reasonable evidence to what exactly happened that night when the golden light shined like the rising sun and quickly faded away like a firework, many believed the beast was blown to bits by the blonde shinboi's self sacrifice. But only a select few knew the truth.

The villagers could rest and rebuild now not having to worry of the Nine-Tails, but soon word of the terrible things that happened that night would reach them all. Shattering that small breather they believed they were granted.

* * *

**The Present, Konohagukaure, Many Years Later**

Since that night many years ago the Third Hokage ,Hiruzen Sarutobi, took up the mantle of Hokage, that his late successor was forced to leave behind. And since then he continued to have horrible dreams of that tragedy years ago. The shinobi, the families, the civilians, even his own loved ones dead and gone. He was an old man with a small goatee and short spiked hair, both once were dark brown now grayish white.

He had bags under his eyes, though when he was younger he only had one line under each eye. Although an old man, age has not taken much of a toll on his appearance, as it has on his skills, as it would only seem to have given him some grey hair, several wrinkles, and very few liver-spots. With taking back the title of kage in his old age it would seem that he has tooken on smoking a pipe.

But he still radiated power that was mostly unmatched with wisdom and peace-loving philosophies gathered from living through wars. So it was natural that Sasuke Uchiha, Konoha's meance to society, was pretty nervous under Sarutobi's gaze. While he stood inbetween two very exhausted chunin who looked equally pissed off.

"Lord Hokage-sama.. we heard complaints.. from the civalins of this brat ..stealing from people, and harassing the ..storekeepers" the older chunin to his left wheezed out. Say whatever you wanted about this boy he was a challenge for most jonin level to catch, Sasuke just rolled his dark eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hmm that's quite the shenanigans you've gotten into" said The Third ,his voice nothing but monotone. Smoke exhaled out of his body traveling like steam from his nostrils, resembling an old dragon from ancient folklore.

"What would make you do such a thing Sasuke?" He asked staring at the Sasuke.

"Hn.. I don't know" he admitted with puffed cheeks.

Sighing as if that was the answer he wanted, he thanked the chunin for their effort and dismissed them. Sasuke watched closely as the chunin left, he caught the look of coldness, hatred, and darkness hidden in their eyes as they left. Those two were no different because they all looked at him with those eyes, it was like an everyday ritual.

"Now Sasuke, why don't you take a seat and tell me your real motives" Sarutobi sighed as he interlaced his fingers, resting his chin on them.

Sasuke took a seat that was closer to the desk. Sitting in an adequate chair, surprisingly it just gave off a welcoming vibe as he sunk into it. But despite the comfort Sasuke felt when he set in his favorite chair, it only made these talks a little better everytime he got in trouble.

"Sooo?" the elder man inquired

"Well Grandpa Saru I know what you're thinking, 'Oh Sasuke just is a misfit kid who needs some discipline, who gets his kicks out of terrorizing people' but your wrong" the young child ranted

"But the truth is I do this just because I'm lonely and I wanna' hang with you Grandpa Saru" Sasuke tried to play off his puppy dog look which only worked on people who didn't hate him.

"Oh how sincere of you Sasuke visiting little old me, but cut the act what's your real scheme hmm?"

But when you show all your tricks to the same sucker everyday, after a while the sucker wisens up a bit. Sasuke sighed in annoyance because what his usually excuse wasn't gonna cut it today, the old man wanted a real answer.

"Hn. Fine you got me Grandpa Saru..truth is well.." He hesitated

"The t-truth is.." He tried again but couldn't spit it out

"It's ok Sasuke this just is a chance to reveal what on your mind-"

"TRUTH IS I REALLY AM LONELY!**"**

This outburst truly brought the roof down on the kage's head, he never would have truly expected Sasuke felt truly lonely. He acted so care-free and full of determination, that it was as if the villagers truly didn't bother him.

"S-Sasuke how is it the villa-"

"No it's not them it's never about them! I'm use to that now, It's not them that hurt me.. its my family" Sasuke now feeling very vulnerable as his sat in the chair arms wrapped around his knees, which touched his chest.

"Your family?" Sarutobi was mostly at a loss of words, never had he expected the a Uchiha to express himself so openly. But this was boy was a child, not a shinobi. He was much more than a Uchiha.

"Don't get me wrong I'm completely insignificant to the villagers, that don't like me. Which I'll never understand, But my family I love each one of them. From my aunts to my uncles to my grandparents.."

"But I get this feelings the same coldness I feel from the village, I feel my clan give me that but possible worse."

"Sasuke I'm sorry you feel that-"

"You know Grandpa Saru I think you and Itachi are the only people who care if I live or die in this village. My own Father thinks I'm useless"

Sarutobi hated to think the only reason Sasuke felt this loneliness, just because of his own thoughtless decision to put him with those people. Sarutobi shook his head in shame as he looked at the red and irritated eyes of the child.

_'Forgive me Minato-san'_

"But you know what Grandpa Saru, I'm gonna make the villagers love me.. all of them" Sasuke boldly proclaimed. Even though his tone held no malice, the statement just sounded ominous in a way that altered Sarutobi. The sun reflecting a small flare of determination in his dark pools.

"And how exactly would you go about that Sasuke" The Third asked, silently hoping for a simple child-like answer full of untouched innocence.

"I'll become Hokage, with power and strength they would have to love me. Just like they love you!" He gave a foxy grin despite the unconscious spike in his abnormal chakra.

But as usually things could never be that simple with Sasuke Uchiha ; The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and Son of The Yellow Flash.

At that moment Sarutobi had an ultimatum, if he left Sasuke with the Uchiha for too long. Sasuke could be steered down the wrong path. He had to be removed from them, or the Uchiha removed from Sasuke. Or Konoha could face a dark storm of consequences later on.

The Uchiha were a problem and Sasuke further proved it, no more chances. Hiruzen decided he needed to reconsider the council's plans.

* * *

**For those who read the orignal hope you were impressed with this revision. Hope this attracts new readers as well, thanks for reading this and please leave your thoughts. And my actually next chapter update will vary, I may have a revised chapter or a new chapter.**

**Have a blessed day, Taijen Signing Off**


	2. Longest Day! Evil Descends

**Turn Of Events**

**Chapter 2 - Revised  
**

* * *

**Time Skip - Two Years Later**

" Tch where is that guy at, he said meet him at the usual training grounds" Sasuke grunted, he began to pace back and forth obviously .

Today was a very important day, today Itachi would help him train. Which he never did, being very busy for some whose only thirteen. Sasuke had been waiting for almost two hours from the stated time, his brother was never late. "When I get a hold of him it's so on-" The boy froze as he heard a strange whistling noise, Sasuke found himself in a sense of confusion as he felt his body act on its own, purely on reflexes he dived to the grass.

_'THWIMP'_

Just mere inches to his left a kunai was implanted in the grass, Sasuke scanned the perimeter for possible enemies, the barely audible crunching of grass tipped his ears to a failed sneak attack . Diving ahead Sasuke grabbed the kuani, rolling on his back he transitioned to his feet. Spinning on his feet with inhuman accuracy Sasuke heaved the kunai toward the attacker.

"Woah! Sorry Sasuke remind me to never be late again" Sasuke looked up to see the small apologetic smile of Itachi, while he held the thrown kunai between his fingers. Even with his above average reflexes, Sasuke still wasn't a challenge to Itachi.

"But I'm impressed you can sense the attack coming.." Itachi tucked away the kunai, walking toward Sasuke poking his forehead.

"Even though I threw it with only one-third of my full effort in it" Sasuke scrunched up his face at the brotherly gesture, while he nursed his forehead.

"Yeah yeah sure whatever you say Itachi" Sasuke began to smirk before Itachi turned toward him once more.

_"But still for Sasuke to have anticipated the kunai is slightly disturbing for his age"_ Itachi held a serious gaze, he stared off in a thoughtful manner. Sasuke watched his brother in confusion, he seemed paler than usual.

"Big brother?"

Startling him back into reality, Itachi eyes re-focused on Sasuke. "Sorry Sasuke just a little distracted, let's get started with your training". Sasuke broke off into a hyper-active persona flashing his canines, Itachi frowned slightly because he already knew what Sasuke was itching to begin with.

"Awesome lets spar! Hand to hand, taijustu, lets fight Itachi" Sasuke bounced on the balls of his feet, mimicking a boxer, though he was only average for his age in taijustu.

Itachi sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to reason with Sasuke. "Sasuke I don't think-" Itachi words were cut short, he tilted his head to the left. Letting a fist glide by, Itachi grasped Sasuke's forearm as he stared into Sasuke's determined pupils. Sasuke seemed to struggle in his hold starting to get annoyed, Itachi also tried hard to not laugh at his little brother's face. No matter how much Sasuke grew, his anger always amused Itachi.

Sasuke was pissed off now, he dived low while twisting his body, dropping into a leg sweep. Itachi ahead of his brother as always, released his hold evading the attempt. Though Sasuke was very undisciplined in taijustu, he made up for it in speed and reaction time. Itachi found himself engaged in a series of dodging more sloppy strikes, despite his swift recovery Sasuke couldn't offensively compete with his brother yet.

They danced around the field for a while, Itachi gracefully swaying his shoulders back and forth. Evading the punches and further aggravating his younger brother, "Dammit Itachi stop moving so much!"

They seemed to be in a stalemate, Itachi had the superior speed and agility to dodge the feeble attacks. But Sasuke had the endurance to keep this up for hours.

Itachi lazily shifted from left to right dodging each strike, and delivering punishing blows to Sasuke when he felt like it. One hand stuffed in his pocket, eyes closed, and the epitome of coolness emphasized in his moves. But the longer the exchange dragged on Itachi wasn't feeling so cool.

"Dammit this is taking too long" Itachi muttered he felt himself sweat a bit, Itachi slapped away the incoming face shot.

"Stop being so predictable" Itachi spat out, capturing Sasuke's attention.

"Wait wha-" the outburst completely throwing him off.

Suddenly the normally limp arm of Itachi Uchiha sprung out digging into Sasuke's gut. Upon impact Sasuke leaped forward the wind being knocked out of him, being supported by the fist that made him dizzy, he dropped to his knees.

"GAWWH!" Sasuke coughed up some blood, the shock of such a strong attack made his head spin. He looked up to see Itachi's lips moving, but no words reached him all he could hear was ringing in his ears.

"What?" Sasuke struggled onto one knee, before he was yanked to his feet up by his collar. "Sasuke that was the most pitiful display of taijustu I ever seen" Itachi eyes flashed crimson as he radiated a rare emotion; anger. It startled Sasuke for never once had he seen his calm beloved brother ever anger, especially at his little brother. He clenched his brother's hand, trying to free himself from his rough grasp. "Brother you're hurting me.. stop it" he fidgeted under the intense gaze that reflected all his faults, it was like seeing your loved ones turn into monstrous creatures.

The villagers. All of them ninja and civilian, outsider and Uchiha alike shared a mutual characteristic of hateful eyes. Eyes so unsuited for a child's life to bear, he tried to run but they seemed to even reach his only hope in this village. It was one thing to be disappointed in sloppy skills, but another to all out lose your cool over it. There was more to Itachi's irritation.

"Your suppose to be representing the Uchiha.. showcasing the greatness of the clan..but you barley can produce a proper strike" The infamous Sharingan burning holes into Sasuke's soul. Releasing his hold Itachi allowed Sasuke to stumble to the ground, eyes wide with disbelief threatened to shed tears. Quickly scrambling to his feet, Sasuke ran quickly far away from the field. Itachi choosing to let him go, watching his back fade into the woods.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Itachi sighed as he felt an ominous chakra flood the area. He mentally flinched at _'his'_ so soon arrival, glad he got rid of Sasuke for the time being.

"A little hard on the kid wouldn't you say Itachi-kun" A arrogant laugh filled the area, slightly irritating the young genius. Swirling around to find the dangerous company of a masked figure.

"Finally ditched the kid I see" The deep voice spoke in twisted amusement.

Nearly producing chills among the unnerved Uchiha, it was clear to Itachi he was extremely dangerous. "Can we just get on with this" Itachi sighed as he stared ahead, not enjoying any second in _'his'_ presence.

"Sure thing kid. Yes after tonight phase one is in motion, now come Itachi we have much to do" He beckoned Itachi over, the area around them seemed to shift and swirl before both sucked out of existence like a vacuum, deserting the training grounds.

**_XXX-_**

**_Uzumaki Household_**

"Naruko Uzumaki get down here now young lady!" A red-haired women screeched as she searched for her daughter. Kushina Uzumaki, her life was that of a simple mother to a headstrong daughter and married to the clan head. She loved her husband Kosatu, but hated the housewife act she had to put on for other company. Just as much as her daughter hated the perfect family ploy.

This was probably her own fault for not expecting her daughter to once again rebel against her parents, as the heiress of the clan Naruko was expected to be proper and obedient. If it wasn't for her being an adult she would act the same way, refusing every argument to play along. But sadly Naruko inherited more her strong personality than she thought, finally laying eyes of a sliver of crimson hair like her own, Kushina pounced upon the hidden figure. Latching onto her daughter, they rolled around the floor wrestling for control.

"AHH let go of me mother! I don't wanna' go!" Naruko squealed as she felt her mother getting the upper hand. They rolled to a halt, quickly springing up the woman grabbed Naruko by the hair dragging her along. "Your going to dress up whether you like it or not!" She yelled back toward the little girl

Finally managing to get to her room, she released her hold on Naruko, much to her relief her mother seemed to have calmed a bit. "Now listen to me Naruko tonight is a very important night for your father. Do you remember why?"

Almost like an automaton she responded dully, "Yes mother tonight father will be meeting with the head of the Hyuuga clan, and discuss important political matters." Nodding in approval her mother smiled in pride, having forced weeks of mannerism and courtesy in her daughter was going to pay off tonight. "And what does that mean for you honey?"

Sighing the eight year old spoke the lines that were pretty much programmed in her brain by now, her voice low and face scrunched up. "I must entertain Hyuuga-san's daughter Hinata, as well as be the perfect heiress. Polite, quiet, and.._mindless" _She spoke the last word in a hushed tone to get past her mother, resisting a smirk as her mother seemed to not have heard.

"Yes! See Naruko I told you all those lessons of edict would pay off" She beamed at her daughter. Out of nowhere her mother pulled out a kimono and a makeup kit from behind her back. "So now that we are in agreement lets begin"

Panicking Naruko fled toward the window but to her horror, it was nailed shut. Trembling in the corner as her mother approached her like a predator about to rip apart its prey, this was the time of reckoning.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

_**XXX-**_

_**Hyuugas**_

Hinata Hyuuga heiress the Hyuuga clan, walked along her father. Encircled by her clansmen, Hinata walked about two inches to the right of her father. Hiashi Hyuuga father to Hinata , normally a very serious and strict men, often compared to demons. The little girl was barely months into being eight years old. Hiashi still kept her on a tight lease, it was one of Hiashi's many enforced regulations upon his child, through discipline he planned to mold the perfect heiress.

"Hinata" The calm yet strong voice of Hiashi, snapped Hinata out of her thoughts. "Y-yes father" she stuttered in her soft voice. Hiashi's features shriveling into a frown he belittled Hinata, "Stop that foolish stuttering girl! I will not allow you to embarrass me, do you understand" Hiashi eyes bulged with the Hyuuga clan dojustu. Hinata could only nod as she mentally slapped her self for being so jumpy. Hiashi barked in irritation "I don't understand what is wrong with-" The coughing of one of the guards interrupted his rant.

"What Akiza?" Hiashi spoke through clenched teeth, his patience running thin by now.

"Um..Hiashi-sama we approach the gates of the Uzumaki compound"

Looking ahead Hinata study the awaiting compound walls, taking in the massive size of the gates. They were intimidating in stature, the dark blue gates looked at least thirteen feet tall and wide. Hinata found herself gaining a headache as she stared at the bright red swirl that covered the gate. Coming in distance of the gate two guards stood positioned at the entrance, they seemed to be chunin-level shinobi of strong build. "Hey man like I said I think she gave me something my-" The guard noticing the group approaching, cut his conversation. "Um halt! State your business here" the taller one of the two questioned the group,eyeballing the Hyuugas, in response a fellow Hyuuga serving as one of their escorts stood before the guards.

"Lord Hyuuga has come to attend to private matters between Lord Uzumaki and himself" Akiza had dark short hair with a handsome face and was lean but speed build with fierce taijustu, wearing the standard jonin flak jacket and black pants. Akiza spoke politely, Hinata observed the man's attitude do a 180 degree flip, he changed his rough tone. "My apologies lord Hyuuga" he and the other guard bowed before Hiashi "We were not aware of your coming".

"All is forgiven young man" Hiashi stood before the guard, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But I must admit I'm feeling very impatient and would like to go on, if you would allow us" Hiashi making the men sweat puddles.

"Of course Hyuuga-san!" The guard seemed to be having an anxiety attack as he yanked the other men up. Both rushed over to the firmly built gate, both pulled their sleeves up completely revealing their hands. Watching curiously Hinata almost gawked when she saw black symbols materialize around their right hands, while they gathered chakra in their hand. Placing their hands upon the gate, it begin to glow and flashing bright white symbols begun to spread across the gate. As if the gate was being erased from existence the large gate began to de-materialize into thin air, every fiber of it up in smoke in mere seconds. Revealing bright lights of street lamps and open stores, Hinata observed the beauty of Uzumaki living.

Walking through the open space while followed by the guards, inside the clan walls Hinata watched as the previous vacant space begun to be refilled by the gate._ 'Amazing!'_ Hinata concluded about the vanishing gate, turning around she practically had a heart attack. Her brain in shock of the beauty the Uzumaki estate could produce. Each house not very spacious in size but harbored masses of beauty, every home had cherry blossoms petals and numbers of flowers surrounding them. As if mother nature specifically chose to bless these people with such natural scenery.

"Beautiful isn't it?" One of the guards spoke to Hinata, noticing her stunned features. Hinata nodded in agreement, blushing in embarrassment "Yes very". Leaving her side the Uzumaki stood before the Hyuugas, "Allow me to lead you Hyuuga-sama to Kosatu-sama, my name is Mokure" Mokure gave a kind smile as his spiky red hair waved with the breeze.

Akiza spoke to Hiashi, offering his two cents about Mokure's help. "Hiashi-sama the streets aren't necessarily packed with people, but we don't know our way around here", Hiashi contemplated it. "You may lead the way Uzumaki" Hiashi nodded in acceptance of his help. Mokure nodded a thanks while walking ahead of the group, leading them through the streets of the shopping district.

_**XXX-**_

_**Uzumaki Household**_

"Honey are you almost done?" Kosatu asked for the hundredth time in one minute, himself already dressed in formal robes for hours now, Kushina turned around with an angry snarl. "I've told you Kosatu it takes three times as long for women to get dressed than men!" she yelled at him, her crimson hair began to float in the air resembling nine tails.

"No that's not what I meant, I meant do you think you'll be done anytime soon?" Kosatu waved his hands in a defensive way, hoping she didn't go off the deep end again. Kosatu had no wish to have to explain to Hiashi why his eye was black or knots on his head.

"Eh maybe four" She combed her hair as she sat in front the mirror. "Four what? Seconds, minutes, hours!" Kosatu imagined the endless amount of time women could waste on getting ready and was about ready to pull his hair out. "Eh yeah maybe five" Kushina mumbled still combing her hair.

Kosatu realized the only way to get her away from that mirror was for him to be Kushina's mirror. "But honey you look so stunning already no need for you to spend so much unnecessary time on your appearance" gaining her attention Kushina spun in her chair toward Kosatu.

"Really? You like my kimono?" She asked gesturing to her clothing. She wore a dark purple kimono with outlines of white, with white blossoms petals along the hem that did well for her curvaceous figure and ample chest. Kosatu grabbed Kushina hand pulling her into a tight embrace, smiling to her. "Of course I do. You look so amazing and breath-taking that I'm jealous of the dress because, it can be closer to you than I can" He kissed her forehead.

"Besides if it wasn't for this damn meeting of sorts, I would take you right here and now.." Kosatu whispered in Kushina's ear. Blood begun to rush to Kushina's face, her face resembling a tomato.

"Kosatu I love you" The two lovers held each other. Unfortunately the moment was ruined by their daughter.

"Ewww! Get a room you two, I was coming to let you guys know the tea for tonight is ready! But never mind it now" Naruko gagged , covering her eyes from the lovebirds' affection.

Embarrassed that their daughter nearly caught them in the act, they separated each having a face red as tomatoes. "Um yes I'll go set the drinks" Kushina began smoothing out her dress while she followed her daughter toward the kitchen.

Preparing the last few things for the visit of the Hyuugas, in no time the sound of knocking echoed through the house. It was time for the performers to hit the stage. The Uzumakis stood before the door all making last-minute adjustments to their appearance, finally Kosatu reached for the door swinging open to meet the awaited company.

"Hiashi-san it is a pleasure to see you my friend" Kosatu addressed the man dressed formally in white robes his expression business like. "And good evening gentleman" Kosatu greeted the Hyuuga guards, as they all also gave their respects to Kosatu.

Noticing Mokure, Kosatu smiled at the young man "Good evening Mokure, how are you tonight?". Mokure bowed before the head and his family and greeted politely. "Good evening lord Uzumaki".

"Mokure how about you take the Hyuuga guards to Tacrai's barbecue stand, while my family and the Hyuugas interact. Here my treat"

From his formal robes Kosatu pulled out a brown cloth sack full of ryo, handing it to Mokure. "Of course my lord, thank you very much" the young man smiled as he led the Hyuuga to dinner.

"As it is an honor to be welcomed into your beautiful estate Kosatu-san" Both men bowed before each other in respect. Naruko eyes lying instead on the girl who stood beside the man, Naruko assumed the girl was Hiashi's daughter. She wore a lavender kimono, with simple flowers printed on it.

"Hiashi-san I would like to introduce to you my family, this is my wife Kushina" Kosatu gestured to his wife who gave a stiff bow to Hiashi, not one to be so formal so this was a difficult task. "Good evening Hyuuga-san"

"And this is my daughter Naruko" Naruko was snapped out of her thoughts as she realized her father was referring to her, she as well bowed in respect. Just like her mother not use to being so formal, but as an heiress she would be doing stuff like this for years to come. "Good evening Hyuuga-san"

Hiashi nodded in approval at the respect he was given by the family, returning their respect. "Good evening ladies, this is my daughter Hinata". Hinata couldn't help but become slightly nervous in front of these kind strangers, she willed herself not to stutter.

"Good evening Uzumaki-san, it is a h-honor to meet y-you all" She barely manged to get the words out.

Gesturing the two to come in, Kosatu offered a friendly smile."Please don't just stand there, come inside". The Hyuugas entered the beautiful home, observing the bright array of greens and red and other bright colors that covered everything in the house.

"What a beautiful home you have Kosatu-san" complimenting the peaceful decor of the family.

Kosatu addressed the two little girls that stood off to the side, "Naruko why don't you show Hinata here the gardens, if that is alright with you Hiashi-san?"

Hiashi nodded his head in agreement, "A great idea, while we talk you two may socialize with one another".

"Yes Father" Both girls answered simultaneously. "Follow me Hinata" Naruko grabbed Hinata hand running off with her, surprising the girl with the unexpected contact.

"Well allow me to set up the tea for you men to talk" Kushina led them into the dining area, to a nicely prepared tea ceremony. Pouring the cups of tea for the two, playing the role of perfect housewife well. She hoped this would pay off, and that things would run smoothly tonight.

_**XXX-**_

_**Sasuke**_

Sasuke spent most of the day looking up at the sky, after his brother snapped out on him, he just wanted to avoid going home. He had no where to go, so there upon the Hokage monument Sasuke sat for a lengthy period of the day. Laying upon the Hokage mountain with his thoughts to keep him company, he watched the sky grow dark and one by one the village begun to be illuminated by the lights of the night. He sat up as he looked down on the village, perched upon the fourth's gigantic head.

Konoha was a beauteous place, it was different from the other ninja villages. Not in just shinobi, but in spirit, the will of fire which he didn't necessarily understand fully yet was something the third introduced to him sometime ago. Sasuke couldn't remember the exact details of it but he knew that it defined great men of this village, the very men who ruled over Konoha all had this 'will of fire' that the old man spoke of. The Hokage, were men who the shinboi and citizens acknowledged and respected as the greatest around.

Sasuke leaped up from his resting place, It had occurred to him that maybe this 'will of fire' was necessary to become stronger. As the old man said it was a lesson that was passed down to him by his sensei, The Second Hokage, and look just how well off the old man was years after.

It was that 'will of fire' that they all possessed, this 'will of fire' had to be a metaphor for power. Yes, it all made since now they became the best because they sought power with all their heart set on it. And only the ones who did everything they could to get that power, achieved the strength to be the Hokage or reach the strength of a kage. Sasuke's mind began to race as he imagined himself as the future Hokage, he could see it so clear, himself in charge of everyone and everything within the village walls. Respect, fame, and glory all pleasures to indulge in at his whim.

"That's it! That is what I need to be respected in this village, to be understood here, to be loved by others." He stood upon the vertical spike of the fourth's head.

"I will become the greatest Hokage the world has ever known! I won't stop still I'm number one, I will gain power despite the price. Any consequences I will accept!"

The pumped up Uchiha began to descend from the monument, running down the long array of stairs with renewed enthusiasm in his leaps and bounds.

...

From the shadows of the Hokage monument a masked figure stalked in the moon lite night, standing just where Sasuke was previously sitting. "That boy is truly a Uchiha, his heart is full of drive to prove himself to those who doubt him. His ancestors would be proud, wouldn't you agree Itachi?" Itachi emerged from the shadows, his eyes blood-red.

"What interests you in my brother?" Itachi glared at the men before him, he didn't trust the man at all but he needed his help. _'He'_ was willing to help him shoulder the burden that would haunt him forever, but honestly Itachi believed '_he'_ would lose no sleep over it.

"Lets just say I have certain investments in him that I want to see reaped in the coming years" He stalked toward Itachi, ignoring the cold-blooded glare he was receiving.

Itachi moved in a blur of movements thrusting out his leg for a blow to the man, leaning back the masked man evaded fluently with elementary ease. Turning around to acknowledge that Itachi was mere inches from shoving a kunai through his face, Itachi sped up with fatal intentions believing to have surprised _'him'_.

Itachi for the first time had a look on confusion visible on his face, his weapon poised for death-dealing passed right through _'him'_ as if it he was not real. Itachi overcame his initial shock to catch himself, slapping a palm to the ground he find his composure back-flipping to gain some distance.

"What are you?" Itachi replaying the memory of his hand phasing through _'his'_ body. _'Its not scientifically possible to have done that, is this a genjustu?'. _Itachi released a burst of chakra to expel any possible genjustu that may have been placed on him.

The masked man shrugged "I am not very sure myself "

He strolled casually toward Itachi without much regard for his safety, he placed a hand upon Itachi's shoulder.

"I'm simply a man who wants to have the world's nations bow before me, or watch them burn if they refuse my rule". The Sharingan flashed in his eyes before morphing into a warped design in the irises.

"Now come Itachi we have work to do" The masked man walked ahead of the teen, stopping when Itachi called for him.

"What are we doing here anyway?" Itachi spat out, not enjoying any moments spent with him. "Before the massacre of the Uchiha.." The man looked upon the village from the fourth's head, "I have more chaos to let loose upon this village".

"What do I have to do?" Itachi asked bluntly, he grew tired of the man's secretive ways.

"Nothing. I have a contact that has infiltrated a stronghold in Konoha, with a sinister motive. After tonight things will forever be changed" The masked man began to be sucked into a vortex that compacted him into a tiny particle, dragging in Itachi with him. They were to resume Itachi's training.

**_XXX-_**

**_Naruko & Hinata_**

In the gardens of the Uzumaki compound, two girls sat around talking. Unknown to them they would be best friends one day, they would inspire each other to grow stronger. "So Hinata tell me what do you like to do for fun?" Naruko asked sitting in the grass near the pond, where toads lurked.

Naruko though a nice girl had a strong personality compared to Hinata's reserved tendencies, which Naruko couldn't understand at all. "Umm well I-I like to tend to plants and c-care for a-animals" the Hyuuga grew red in the face. _'She probably thinks I'm boring' _

"Wow that really boring!" Naruko said nonchalantly, not meaning any harm but honestly speaking her mind. Hinata's eyes reflected hurt, her assumption of the girl's thoughts correct. Naruko feeling bad for saying something like that so plainly made her immediately apologize.

"Wait I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that's not my definition of fun Hinata" Naruko tried to reassure Hinata that she was not trying to hurt her feelings.

"It's ok Naruko-chan, I tend to be someone who doesn't attract attention" Hinata eyes locked with the ground, she begun to put her pointer fingers together. Her statement caught the red-head off guard to hear someone so easily put themselves down, it irked Naruko's everlasting nerves for some reason she couldn't understand.

Jumping up she placed her hands on her hips, and began to give Hinata a piece of her mind. "Don't say that Hinata!" her eyes held fierce resolve that caught Hinata off guard, why would she care about what she thought about herself?

"When I said that I only meant that maybe you could have more fun if you opened up more" Naruko stood before Hinata speaking her mind as she would with a stranger or a precious person. "You get what I'm sayin'?"

"Umm sorry Naruko-kun I don't understand" Just being a girl Hinata was considered to be innocent, but in her special case she could be the most naive and innocent girl in all the fire country.

Sighing in slight annoyance Naruko decided to go at her with a different approach, "Well let's put it like this.." Naruko got within a inches from Hinata's face producing a crimson hue upon her cheeks. "How many friends do you have?"

Hinata actually sat in stupor for a few moments for she knew that this was a question, she herself honestly could not answer herself. "W-Well there is.. no never mind"

"Exactly Hinata you have no friends because people are intimidated of us" Naruko pointed between herself and the hyuuga, visualizing a possible connection they have. "What do you mean Naruko?" Hinata not expecting Naruko or anyone to have ever used her name and intimidation in the same sentence. Unless someone said _'Hinata is so easily intimidated by the littlest things, I bet her own shadow scares her'._

"Well as an heir or heiress to a clan , to others we are like completely different life forms. Who aren't to be approached the same as a normal villager just because of social status and the reputation of a last name"

From first glance Naruko could be seen as a very irrational and impulsive girl, but also she was a people person, she could understand people better than she could learn history or any type of education formally taught. She just was the type of girl people flocked too just because of her aura. And Hinata could see that Naruko was just the same on the inside as she is on the outside without her Byakugan.

"Which is a wrong thing to prejudge us all as stuck up brats, but don't get me wrong there are kids that think they're better than others just because of status and their name" Naruko continued to school Hinata on what was a potential problem for her and others like them.

"Only knowing you for like 10 minutes and I can already tell your shy, insecure, and lonely" Naruko sat beside Hinata on the bamboo bench.

"I can tell your shy and that's why you're so quiet, but an average joe may simply interpret you as being too stuck up to talk to others".

"Sooo that m-e-eans-" Hinata kinda lost at this point asked the talkative Uzumaki. "Sooo it means that the way to make friends is to be more outgoing and sometimes even out of your comfort zone" Naruko placed her hand on Hinata shoulders, under her breath Naruko whispered "Please understand me" hoping that Hinata understood what she had just preached to her for.

"So w-what d-do you have in m-mind for me to do Naruko?" Hinata face reddened in embarrassment at the type of things the bold red-head might have had in mind.

"Well I was thinking to get you use to social interaction, we should skip the baby steps and jump into the challenging stuff!" Naruko practically glowed with excitement a mass of crazy schemes all being produced in milliseconds. "I got it!" Naruko jumped up pulling Hinata with her up by the hand.

"Hinata is there.." Naruko looked around as if to make sure no one was around "a certain boy you like?" Naruko grinned evilly as she watched Hinata's face become a blazed like flames.

"Naruko!" Hinata tried to fight back her embarrassment, perfectly yelling her name in semi-anger but more embarrassment. Despite the small upset tone Hinata voice had carried, Naruko pressed on with the question. "Ah come on Hinata, do you like a boy! Do ya!, Do ya!" Naruko bounced around yelling out loud for all to hear.

Cupping her hand around the loud Uzumaki, Hinata silenced her. "Hush Naruko, or the o-others will hear you. I t-tell you if you promise to q-quiet down" Slowly Hinata cautiously removed her hand from Naruko's mouth, still afraid if the red-head would randomly start yelling again. Naruko mouthed with big wide eyes _'OK'._

The Hyuuga heiress took a deep breath before she began to spill her secret crush to someone she barely knew, but already was her best/only friend. "I do have a crush on a boy-"

"AH HA! I knew it, you have a huge fat crush on a boy. Who is he? What's his name? Do you think he likes you?" Naruko was out of control rapidly blurting out question after question

"Well its kin-d-da hard to explain" Hinata looked down as she played with her pointer fingers in nervousness. "His name is Mo-"

"Naruko-chan!" Suddenly her attention was diverted from Hinata as Naruko turned toward the voice, Mokure walked toward the girls sporting a friendly smile. "Hey Mokure!" Naruko became slightly excited at to have Mokure visiting her family. "And pleasure to see you again Miss Hyuuga" Mokure bowed to her, grabbing her hand he kissed it. "He-ello Mo-okure-san" Hinata flushed at the sudden touch from the older male.

Watching the exchange between the two Naruko couldn't help but assume Hinata liked Mokure, she was redder than she had been all this night. Stepping between the two Naruko tried to put some distance between Hinata and her inappropriate crush.

"So Mokure what's up?" Naruko asked him, trying to see what was it that he stopped by for. She didn't know why but something in her brain was nagging her to watch out for Hinata even though they just meet. While Mokure is a friend of the family, and very much an older brother in a way to Naruko. "Oh yeah and what happened to the Hyuu-"

"Oh yeah Naruko I was just stopping by to ask if you want to come get some training in, since I got off guard duty earlier tonight". Almost instantly Naruko forgot about those feelings of uneasiness and remembered exactly who the teen before her was, and how she looked up to him. "Of course let's go!" Naruko began to walk to the normal training ground that Mokure trained with her at outside of the compound.

So excited about the prospect of training even at the ungodly hour, she noticed she was walking alone. Turning back she saw Mokure with a disapproving glare for her, and an awkward looking Hinata staring at the grass. "What you guys doing? Mokure your training me and Hinata your coming along with us!" Naruko declared to the two.

Hinata eyes lite up like the moon, she was excited about hanging around the two kind Uzumakis. Now more than ever so glad she came with her father. Speaking of her father she begun to remember why she was even there, "W-What about my Dad what if he worrys about where I am?" Hinata began to become reserved again, pondering what her father may do to her if she upset him.

"Don't worry Hinata our dads told us to stick together, and as long as we aren't separated we technically can't get in trouble" Naruko slyly twisted the words into a conditions that technically weren't lies, but altered perspectives. Genius was this girl when she wanted to be!

"Then what are we waiting for ladies, let's get a move on! Last one there has to do 50 push ups!" With that Mokure and Naruko sped off into the distant leaving a stunned Hinata in their dust clouds.

"W-Wait for me guys" Hinata ran after them trying to catch up to the Uzumakis. But for the first time she could ever remember she felt joy in her heart, something she missed since her mother passed away. Naruko and Mokure represented a hopeful new era of happiness for Hinata.

_**XXX-**_

_** Sasuke**_

Sweat layered his body like a second wrapping of skin, his cheeks were red and dotted with small blisters. Sasuke had been at this for the last hour and a half, the grass around him black from constant abuse of intense heat that destroyed everything upon contact. Only problem was Sasuke couldn't even fully control the justu as he released it, thus he created a large mass of fire that blow up in his face every time. After hours of being hit by the backlash of your own technique, you would think he would either be dead or had gave in. But not in his case for he was way too numb by now to acknowledge the pain, and his chakra levels were more than enough to practice this advanced justu all night .

That and he was too stubborn to go home and not have mastered this technique, he had to prove he was strong to them all. Even Itachi now. He began to move through the hand seals at a careful pace, something else to improve on, sucked in a deep breath. The chakra building in his chest transforming into flames, _'Now!'_

_**"Fire Style : Fireball Justu!**_

The roar of fire erupted from his mouth that began to swirl and spiral into a sphere of flames, the flames licking the grass below incinerating it as the flame grow bigger and bigger. The young genin pumping more chakra into the justu, _'Success!' _. Sasuke mentally smirked at the fireball's size and density, the fireball began to become unstable as flames began to burst out of the compressed sphere resembling a miniature sun . The streams of fire became to unravel and blast out, he was losing control over the flames again!

_**"BOOM!"**_

Sasuke was tossed away by the raw force of the explosion, sending him skidding and bouncing across the ground before coming to a stop on his face. That was like the 19th time that he lost control, his muscles ached some but quickly the numbness spread through his body almost like a drug buzz.

Pushing himself up to rest on his knee for a bit, he tried to catch his breath as he observed the scenery of what was left of the training field. The grass was diminished in most areas all the way down to the soil, his flames eradicated the trees leaving them hideously scarred and scorched at least the ones that were lucky to be standing still were.

"Again!"

Sasuke willed himself to stand and through some miracle he didn't collapse from extreme fatigue, the justu he realized lacked only one thing from the formula. Chakra measurement. The only reason he knew that was because of his father disgracing him and his skill.

**Flashback-**

** Two weeks ago**

**"Come on boy! If you can't get this justu down don't every count on receiving your clansmen's respect!" Fugaku stood behind Sasuke as he watched the boy struggle to control his flames, he only yelled never offered advice but simply yelled at Sasuke.**

**"Yes Father" Sasuke would attempt the justu again but would force too much chakra into the technique. Causing the fireball to force the creation of vents to expel the pent-up chakra and explode.**

**_"Fire Style : Fireball Justu!"_  
**

**Sasuke would spend hours of dedicated work to master that technique everyday after school, and the same results would blow up in his face everytime. And with each failed attempt Fugaku grew closer to his own explosion. **

**After a another failed attempt to control the flames Fugaku finally lost his mind. "You are completely hopeless! A simple justu that every Uchiha member has to pass and the Head's son can't do it, do you know how that makes me look!"**

**"You over overshot how much chakra is necessary to meet maximum size and damage, and you don't even have the chakra control to back up such raw power. Making you as a ninja overall useless."**

**Fugaku turned his back on his son, leaving the dock he turned back around and glared with his Sharingan "I'm ashamed to be your father, call me Uchiha-san from now on boy"**

**And with that Fugaku left Sasuke there to ponder the words that would haunt him for years to come.**

**"Yes Uchiha-san"**

**Flashback End**

Old wounds felt ripped open again, Sasuke wiped his eyes dry a bit. His will bouncing back to normal highs Sasuke pounded his fist into his hand ready to master the justu. "No water works I'll prove Itachi, Father, and the villagers how strong I really can be!" With renewed spirit Sasuke began to go through the hand seals the quickest he could mange.

_'Horse, →Tiger, Ram , Monkey, →Boar, Horse ,Tiger'. _The familiar warmth of his chakra gathered in his chest transforming into fire, gave a feeling of peace.

_**"Fire Style : Fireball jus-"**_

"HELP!"

Sasuke forced the flames to spill out of his mouth like a powerful stream, the unexpected yell of terror threw him off. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or did someone call out for help.

"HELP!"

That was the only invitation that the boy needed to run in the direction of the cries, even with the possibility of this being someone who hates his guts. He decided he would deal with that when the time came, but now was the time for action. Sprinting toward the direction the screams came from, he kicked it into high gear while the screams become more desperate and pleading.

_**XXX-**_

_**Uzumaki Household**_

"Are they to be trusted Uzumaki-san?" The white eyes of Hiashi Hyuuga bulged with veins as he stared at the man across from him. Though this man was a strong shinobi and a respectable politician, Kosatu Uzumaki was still an idiot in the eyes his eyes.

"Listen Hyuuga-san the Uchiha may not be the nicest clan in the village, but they're comrades I believe the issues between the village and the Uchiha can be resolved with more diplomatic meetings of understanding, with an environment established with them of not trying to take anything from them. We could move on to compromises"

"Compromises? With the Uchiha? We have a better chance of gaining forces with Iwa in the next shinobi war than working out agreements with those arrogant bastard" Hiashi sipped more of the delicious jasmine tea Kushina made.

_'You're one to talk about arrogant, you kunai in the ass prick' _. Kosatu stared at Hiashi for a second before speaking again, "Let's just allow things to unfold as they should this coming council meeting"

"I agree-"

Their heated debate over politics in the leaf come to an end just as the violent knocking off the door echoed through the house. "Honey can you get that" Kosatu yelled trying to keep this meeting as formal as possible, but that was cut short as Kushina's screams of his name traveled through the house. Both men rushed to meet Kushina , coming into the area they noticed the floor before them was covered in blood. Kushina set on her knees holding onto a fatally injured young man. "Kushina who is this man?" Kosatu asked as they drew closer, but the man called to Hiashi.

Making the Hyuuga's blood run cold, he grasped the man's shoulder and turned him around to see him. "Hyuuga-sama ..Im..s..so.._sorry. _Hiashi's face went completely blank, for once he lost the pride that normally was a default expression, but a small amount of shock was noticeable in his pale eyes. He stared into the dying eyes of the youth as he bleed from an abdomen stab and tons of cuts scattered across his body.

"Akiza what happened my boy?" Hiashi grabbed the boys shoulders trying to find out who could have did this to him. "M-m.."

"Akiza I cannot hear you my boy please I have to know.."

"Who did this to you?!" Hiashi's eyes were those of a desperate man "M..Mokure"

_**XXX-**_

_**Hinata, Naruko, and Mokure**_

"Good job ladies! I originally I didn't plan on doing that much training but you two wouldn't stop " Mokure smiled as he ruffled the heads of the two girls in affection.

"Awwh idiot all this training totally ruined my kimono!" Naruko yelled as she looked at the tattered remains and dirt that covered it now "Ughhh my mom is gonna kill me!" she then looked to Hinata who manged to have made it out the training session without a speck of dirt or anything. "Hinata how did you manage not to destroy your dress like me!" Hinata smiled shyly, she noticed what Naruko was talking about.

"I don't k-know Naruko m-maybe you got too carried away while training"

"Carried away there's no such thing! It's either all in or your out, right Mokure?" Naruko looked toward him for support. "Agreed" Naruko slapping Mokure a high-five, "But she cannot say Hinata-chan wasn't working hard, she may not look as rigid as you do-"

"Hey!" Naruko shook her fist at him.

He began to circle around Hinata making her blush slightly with his close distance, then he sniffed her "But oh boy does she sure smell like she was working hard tonight!" Instantly the area was filled with the laughter of both the Uzumakis as they had fun, but Hinata was the only one who wasn't laughing. Naruko taking notice after she cooled down approached her.

"Haha..Uhhmm ok what's wrong Hinata? You didn't laugh at Mokure's joke and Mokure's a riot". Hinata not nessicarliy appreciating how bluntly he pointed out her scent, even though they all smelled stinky.

"I-I don't understand why Mokure-kun w-would single me out and r-rudely call me smelly" Naruko almost had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing, before she went on to explain.

"That what friends do we tease each other because it fun to mess with people!" Naruko grinned

"Mokure and I tease each other all the time, right fungus face?" Naruko looked toward Mokure for support. "Yeah tomato head!" Mokure retailed to his mocking from the red-head.

"Yeah.. yeah tomato head good one" Naruko smiled, Hinata noticed it but Naruko face frowned up for a second. _'I Guess she isn't completely use to the name yet'._

"Hey Mokure do you remember the other game we would play after a short training session" Naruko asked kinda nonchalantly,

"Yeah hide and seek" Mokure answered the question while just leaning against a tree. "Why would you ask-" _'SHINK!' _

_'CCCZZZ'_

_**"BOOM!"**_

Mokure jumped out of the blast zone just in time to avoid any fatal damage, but some shrapnel was embedded in his thigh. Pulling the bloody metal out of his leg he sneered. He didn't expect the girl to be carrying weapons, she nearly hit him with the kunai. Neither had he anticipated Naruko to back up her attack with an explosive note attached incase she missed.

"That was a close one, she most have been tipped off somehow. Well I brought them all the way out here may as well finish the job" Mokure stood dusting the debris from his clothes.

"Clever little bitch, how did she know? I need to find those two now" Mokure irritated now that he had to hunt them down, forming the ram seal he expelled chakra using it pulsating patterns to locate their movements through contact on any surface.

"Got 'em. 27 meters north" Mokure disappeared into the forest as he tailed the girls.

"You won't escape me!" his lips curved up into a wicked smile.

_**XXX-**_

_**Uzumaki Compound**_

**"**My fellow clansmen I call upon you for aid, at this hour" Kosatu stood upon an elevated platform addressing his people. The sound of hushed and low chatter erupted throughout the crowd in curiosity .

Around the meeting hall of the Uzumaki estate all the ninja and skilled warriors of the clan gathered to the urgent meeting, the mass of shinobi stood before Kosatu and Hiashi. "My Uzumaki I'm somber and disgraced to report to you all.." Kosatu sighed, his expression resembled one of discomfort while he spoke.

"there is a traitor among us" Among the crowd many tensed up and become very spacious of each other, everyone seemed to suspect one another. Sensing the tense atmosphere that was produced with the news Kosatu explained further. "The traitor of the clan is not among us now but-"

"How are we suppose to know that there is a traitor? Where is your evidence?" A spiky haired plump man-made his way to the front of the crowd, obviously disagreeing with the possibility of a enemy among them. Others seemed to follow the large man bold denial of the accusation, many began to rally around him in support. Putting Kosatu in a tough spot as he tried to explain the situation.

"Well the truth is-" Before Kosatu could find the words to elaborate, "Because he killed one of my finest men!" Hiashi stood before the crowd, angry clear in his eyes as he spoke through clenched teeth. The outburst of the normally mild-mannered Hyuuga killed off the mutters and disbelief of the Uzumakis before him, "Some good men have died by the hands of one of your own" Hiashi spoke with venom laced throughout his speech, the killing intent that radiated from him was so great it caused most of the shinobi to pale in shock.

"Mokure Uzumaki is a traitor to our clan and village, he has kidnapped my daughter and the heiress of the Hyuuga clan" Kosatu placed a reassuring hand upon his furious colleague, he spoke again to the crowd. "Now I want squads of three formed among the shinobi of our clan"

Hiashi stood before the crowd yelling orders to the men in a militaristic persona, he gave out commands. "I want you,you, and you to head toward the Hokage Tower and alert the Third to have the guard lock down the gates and not to let anyone in or out"

Hiashi and Kosatu continued to yell and gave out orders left and right. After all the squads moved out the two immediately began to talk strategy "Hiashi, you and I will cover more ground if we pair up together". The two men leaped to a near roof, launching forward both men started a pattern of rooftop running. "Hiashi use your Byaku-"

"Already on it" Hiashi formed the ram seal, gathering chakra to his eyes. The bulging veins of the Hyuuga bloodline signaled that to Kosatu. After a few tense moments of silence, a thoughtful frown molded upon Hiashi features as he scanned the large radius and studied the areas within his ocular reach. Without a word Hiashi zipped ahead in a different direction, not wanting to be left behind, Kosatu tailed after him.

"Hiashi! Slow down!" Kosatu tried to reach for Hiashi's shoulder.

"We don't have time to stop and talk, we need to get there now"

Hiashi put on more speed as they entered a forest area, leaping from branch to branch at swift intervals. Confused Kosatu tried to consider where the girls could be, this area of the forest seemed familiar to him. It suddenly hit him _'The training fields'_, this was the part of the forest where Naruko liked to go and train.

"Hiashi! What did you see?"

Kosatu nearly caught up with the Hyuuga by now, continuing his rushed pace Hiashi craned his neck to Kosatu. "I'm not sure what it was but I saw a powerful chakra, with an abnormal signature near a few smaller chakra signatures" Hiashi spoke in a unsure tone, not normal for the usually prideful man. And Kosatu understood why.

He was spooked, Hiashi Hyuuga for better or worse was scared. Scared for his daughter, his clansmen, his village. There was more to what Hiashi saw than what he was revealing. Not wanting to push on the subject, Kosatu caught up with Hiashi. Together the two clan heads raced against time traveling under the eerie light of the moon.

**_XXX-_**

**_Naruko & Hinata_**

Hinata began to feel tired now, Naruko had dragged her along for what felt like hours. Too tired to run anymore Hinata collapsed, halting Naruko, instantly she began trying to heave Hinata up.

"Somebody help us!" Naruko yelled to the empty forest

"Come on Hinata we have to keep going or he'll find us"

Naruko pleaded to Hinata, Naruko helped carry Hinata's weight with her arm slouched around Naruko. Sweat beaded down both girls faces, Hinata couldn't handle this prolonged duration of excessive of running anymore. She just didn't have the endurance for this game. Hinata breathing was raspy and asthmatically, she spoke in short breaths.

"Naruko.. don't you thi-...think this game.. is going.. to far?"

Naruko seemed to have not heard Hinata. Her eyes held anxiety as she tried to run while supporting Hinata, finally giving up the futile attempts she spotted a near by area of wild bushes. Trying to place Hinata inside the groves to hide her visibility, this didn't go over too well with Hinata, who greatly tried to debate.

"Naruko..what are..you..doing?"

Naruko ignored the girl's opposition, creating makeshift camouflage from the leaves and branches to hide them. Hinata finally had enough she grabbed Naruko firmly, forcing the scrambling red-head to look at her. Fear reflected, in the so far brave, Uzumaki's eyes. Catching Hinata off guard she could see clearly there was something wrong.

"Naruko?"

Hinata breathing began to regulate some, her voice grew even softer than usual as she could see the fear written in her friend's features. It bothered Hinata greatly, especially when she had no idea what could cause such an upbeat girl like Naruko to become so vulnerable. It made Hinata's heart ache for Naruko, because it reminded Hinata of herself.

"Naruko..what is wrong my friend?" Hinata held Naruko's hand trying to give closure to whatever was effecting her. "If it's the game-"

"Hinata this isn't a game!" Naruko eyes became deathly serious and cold, she snatched her hand from Hinata's, startling the Hyuuga some. "W-What do you mean?"

"This isn't a game Hinata, because that man isn't Mokure" Naruko jerked her head toward their fleeing direction, confusion wrote all over Hinata face. She lost an understanding of the situation once again.

"Not M-Mokure? But how?"

Naruko's face settled into a thoughtful expression, she seemed to be contemplating what was going on as well. "One reason I know that person isn't Mokure, because Mokure never calls me tomato head"

Naruko explained to Hinata that in the past when she first became friendly with Mokure, that he called her apple head because apparently 'tomatoes never did anything to him to deserve being compared to her'.

"S-So because of that you believe that he isn't Mokure?" Hinata seemed to believe Naruko overreacted to him calling her a different nickname.

"Trust me Hinata I know Mokure, and Mokure would never..ever..ever! Call me tomato head"

The strength and confidence in Naruko's voice won over Hinata, now finally believing her friends radical claims. They began to try considering ways to escape this menace and find help. Suddenly the snapping of a twig echoed throughout the area, silencing the two women. From inside the bush they could see the black sandals of what appeared to be a grown man, the pair of feet stood still for a bit.

The feet began to pace around the area, finally the feet began to move toward their bush. Hinata freaked out a bit letting out a nearly silent squeal that Naruko tried to cover up. The person was no more than 6 inches from them, before the sound of rustling alerted them to the hand that reached down trying to feel for a body. Both girls were deathly, careful to avoid tipping him off to their location.

_'SQUACK'_

Suddenly a moment of quick shuffles the hand and feet disappeared and the clamping of sandals alerted them to Mokure's departure. Taking her hand from Hinata's mouth, Naruko poked her head out to see if he was really gone.

"The coast is clear, I think it's safe-"

"GAAWH!"

A spine-tingling cry rattled the ears of the girls, jumping out of the bushes Naruko turned her head in the direction of the cry.

"Who was that?"

"Something feels weird" Hinata turned toward Naruko, her body seemed to stiffen up.

"What do you mean?" Naruko began to notice Hinata starting fidgeting somewhat in nervous intervals.

"I don't know myself but I-I need you to trust me, someone is in trouble. Whether for us I don't know but I can feel the chakra radiating from that area" Hinata pointed in the direction the earlier scream came from.

"I don't know about this-" Naruko was silenced by Hinata's hand. She held it out toward her, Hinata held a look of confidence and somewhat excitement.

"Come with me Naruko" Taking the Hyuuga's hand the two girls began sprinting ahead, wherever Hinata's instincts led them.

_**XXX-**_

_**Sasuke **_

_**5 mintunes **_**_earlier_**

Sasuke had ventured into the deeper areas of the forest for almost twenty minutes now, Sasuke had a gut wrenching chill that something ominous was in the area. Why he wasn't smart enough to high-tail it outta there, only his adventurous spirit could be blamed. Running at his top speed Sasuke began to hear a familiar light crackling noise, still running he instinctively began to rub his stinging eyes.

"Smoke?" Sasuke observed the light coating of ash that accumulated on his hand, then a flash of light radiated out around him in a fiery blast.

**_'BOOM!'_**

A bomb was rigged specifically to detonate and blow anyone or thing sky high that got too close. Mokure leaped from the shadows that the trees cast around him. Observing his handy work with the thoughtfulness of a artist, a crater with a diameter of at least eight feet replaced the previously standing tree and the earth surrounding it.

"Poor kid had no business around here-" Mokure stuffed his hands in his pockets, ready to return to his hunt.

"GAWH!" Mokure turned right around to the receiving end of a dropkick to his face, Sasuke arched his back, tucking his body in he fall into quick roll. While the force of the kick knocked Mokure off his feet propelling him backwards, forcing him to land on his rump, in too much shock from the surprise attack to recover fast.

"Damn brat!" Mokure grunted, he held his nose to slow down the gushing of the blood. He turned his fury on the young Uchiha that stood no more than a few meters with a mischievous smirk. Getting to his quickly and without wobbling, he removes his hand from cradling his nose letting the blood drip free.

"You got some guts boy to pull a fast one like that" Mokure smiled at the boy

"I don't know you, but I know you shouldn't be here! Now I'm telling you this once..leave my village" Sasuke eyes lost their childish glint and grew chilling dark.

"Ohhh! I'm so authoritative, what are you gonna do about it? Tell the Hokage?" Mokure threateningly edged closer to the Uchiha

Sasuke began to grin once more, he laughed nervously while scratching the back of his neck. "Well actually I didn't think that far ahead aha"

_'Is this kid serious?'_ Mokure was starting to get seriously pissed now, he didn't have time for games.

"I gonna skin that smirk off your face!" Mokure leaped forward, slinging three shurikens at Sasuke. Not ready he dives to the side evading the projectiles, pulling out a kunai, he lands in a crouched stance. Sasuke snaps his head up in time, to see Mokure with his leg stretched and bringing it down to smash him.

Pure instincts saved Sasuke's butt, springing back like a crouched toad, Sasuke caught sight of Mokure's foot coming down with tremendous force. His foot creating a small crater, Mokure acted swiftly, slapping his hand on the ground he put his weight on it. In a blur of movements Mokure twirled his body around, with momentum, leading his outstretched foot to smash Sasuke's ribcage. Listening carefully Mokure could have sworn he heard the crushing of bones.

"Gaah!"

Sasuke instinctively grabbed his midsection ignoring the pain, when he crashed into a tree. Slouching over against the tree Sasuke could see Mokure approaching him slowly, a glint in the darkness of a bush caught Sasuke's interest. Willing his body to move but his muscles burned from the fatigue that came with training already.

"See young one that what happens when you run your mouth" Mokure strolled casually toward Sasuke not worried about the boy getting anywhere.

Trying once more he succeeded when his body randomly jolted forward reaching toward the bushes, he fingers clamped around the shaft of a small tool. Wasting no time to see it, he hid it from Mokure's sight. Quickly trying to analyze a strategy, Sasuke resorted to his back up.

"So you hope to gain infamy from killing a little kid, tch that's sad man" Sasuke continued to try to get away, but his body now suffering from his training abuse of it. Lacked the strength to even push himself across the ground

"Ha! That's a good one kid but what makes you think I'm even after you" Mokure slowed his pace, unconsciously he became more vocal as a way to defend himself.

"Oh I guess I'm not good enough for you to waste time on, plus who knows how lowly you really are" Sasuke sneered at Mokure, on the inside he was actually surprised at how well he was able to imitate his Father.

"For your information brat, I'm after a much bigger prize..the hyu-" Suddenly Mokure froze in mid-speech an odd expression formed upon his face, before a wicked smile emerged.

"You sneaky little bastard, I was warned about you Sasuke Uchiha" Mokure pulled out a kunai, while waving a finger at Sasuke as if he was redirecting a child.

"Shame on me Sasuke, you almost had me their child. But I really got other duties to attend to" stalking upon the Uchiha as a predator teasing his prey.

"Darn it!" Sasuke snaps his fingers in mock annoyance, "I guess my reputation precedes me more than I know".

"Yeah poor you!-" Bringing down his kunai poised for stabbing, Mokure jumped back evading a stealthy hide kunai attack. The rattling of tree branches alerted Mokure, he now understood the failed attempt.

Mokure stood alone once again, watching the leaves from the near trees obscure Sasuke's escape route. "So many sneaky children"

"I will find all of you and make you suffer" Mokure leaped in the dark forest once again.

Nearby hidden behind a tree laid Sasuke sweating as if he was in the deserts of Suna, silencing his breaths and staying silent he remained still until he was sure the coast was clear. Slowly Sasuke began to feel the sensation of strength returning to his body, Sasuke could never understand what keep him so energized and flowing with stamina. The old man considered it a blessing to never run out of energy, now more than ever Sasuke understood why. He understood how he barely escaped with his life, Mokure was not only faster and stronger but overall an experienced shinobi.

To not be in the academy and fighting a half decent battle with him, was something to note in Sasuke's skill. And that stamina of his was the only thing that kept him alive, well that and just pure reflexes. Slowly Sasuke began to get back on his feet, using the tree as support since he wasn't a full strength. Fully erect and ready to go Sasuke, was knocked back by the force of what appeared to be two other people. Though their strength together was not greater than his own, only now at low fuel was he overcome.

The two figures pushing him back on the ground, one holding him down, Sasuke struggled despite the uselessness until the moonlight shined upon the figures. The radiant pale skin of a dark-haired girl glowed, while Sasuke was sucked in by her big eyes that were similar to the moon.

"Please calm down" She placed her hands on Sasuke's, her velvety voice worked like a charm calming the formerly shaken up Uchiha. But that peace didn't last long when the harsher voice of the other figure alerted Sasuke to their existence, a mane of long red locks blazed in the moonlight like a torch. Drawing Sasuke to her like a moth to light, he began to notice the soft features the red-head sported like baby fat round cheeks and chocolate brown eyes.

"Ahh Hinata you're being to nice, I got a way to make him settle down if he won't listen" the red-head sneered, noticing Sasuke's blank stare she took the defensive approach.

"Hey what the hell are you staring at weirdo!" She yelled at Sasuke pointing an accusing finger, her cheeks began to heat up.

Sasuke caught himself now snapped out of his daze, he unconsciously yanked his hand away from Hinata. Almost leaping to his feet he pointed at the red-head. "Well I'm staring at the girl who tried to hold me down for some strange reason!"

"Why you little-"

"Stop!" Hinata stepped between the two knuckleheads, hoping to defuse a ticking time bomb of attitudes. Turning her voice of reason on Naruko was her goal, and slowly calm the tension between the two.

"Sorry about that Naruko i-is very.. um well-" Hinata began to ponder how to explain why Naruko was how she was. And honestly there was no way to, it was just natural.

"None of your dang business" Naruko intervened, Hinata wishing to settle things, She grabbed Naruko roughly by the shoulders yanking her away from Sasuke.

"Shut up!"

The seconds after Hinata's outburst were deathly silent, both kids focused on Hinata. Naruko stunned by the sudden change in attitude of her new friend, the once shy girl seemed to have vanished in all the trouble. And Sasuke stood there in confusion from what he gathered he wouldn't have expected the pale girl to be so aggressive, he expected that more from the red-head.

Inhaling a breath of fresh air, Hinata features being to soften once more, she seemed to be reverting back to her normal self. Feeling pretty awkward now Naruko was the first to break the silence.

"So what are you doing here?"

Naruko pointed a suspicious finger at Sasuke, the possibility of Mokure having a killer kid as an assistant became a rational idea in her mind. Caught off guard at how fast the spotlight was forced on him, Sasuke frowned while considering what to say to these girls. He didn't know if he could trust them.

"Well..I was recently taking stroll through the forest, when I heard someone call for help" Sasuke purposely avoided the detail of training, not sure if he could trust them with information of himself as a ninja or ninja in training. For all he knew they could be the ones pursuing the victim he heard, there was no telling.

It didn't seem likely that the girls believed him, Hinata held a serious gaze that was unreadable. While Naruko looked ready to explode on with all her wraith. Quickly Naruko jumped on Sasuke, knocking him down and straddling his hips, pinning him down.

"Bull! Why would you be taking a stroll through this place at night!" Naruko pulled a kunai from her torn kimono, pressing it against Sasuke's throat.

Sasuke had to resist the urge to blush under the heated glare of the psycho red-head, Sasuke laid stiff under her body. Careful to avoid getting his neck sliced by the girl. Suddenly she began yelling demands at him.

"Who are you? Why are you really here? Are you a spy? Tell me now, or I promise you will regret it" Naruko nipped Sasuke's neck with the blade letting a small cut form for the ruthless effect. Despite her brash actions, Hinata supported Naruko choice of words.

"Please tell us what we want to know" Hinata spoke to him in a calmer voice, hoping to persuade Sasuke. Sighing in defeat Sasuke calmed down, he wasn't at full strength to flip the tables on the girls yet.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and-" Sasuke began to spill the beans, when he was interrupted by the loud red-head once again.

"A Uchiha huh. Well why are you out here so late, aren't you a little far from home" Naruko teased Sasuke as if he were a child. Naruko was caught off guard when she noticed the flash of hurt in Sasuke's eyes when mentioning his clan.

As quick as it came it left, Sasuke burying his emotions he took up his attitude with Naruko once more. "I was going to tell you until you interrupted me!"

"Naruko hush up, let him explain" Hinata pestered Sasuke further, trying to dig up whatever she could from him. "I was training out here, but I heard a desperate cry for help"

Both girls understanding his reference to earlier when Naruko yelled out for help, he was their answer to the plead.

"I was trying to find the person who needed help, but I ran into some-" Sasuke began to trail off in his explanation, when suddenly with a burst of strength he flipped Naruko off him. Switching positions with Naruko, while tripping Hinata in the process.

"Down!"

A series of shuriken rained down upon the former area that the children inhabited, missing the intended targets by mere inches. Naruko confused about what happened, tried to focus when she felt Sasuke's weight leave her. He stood strongly in front of the two girls, almost in a possessive way.

"Kid you're really starting to burn my patience" The malevolent voice of Mokure flowed through the area, the deadly young men jumped from the shadows. Landing in a crouch before erecting to his full height, if possible he looked more demented than their earlier run-in.

Hinata extending a hand to Naruko lifted her up, now the children despite not knowing each other for more than a few hours. Seemed to have found trust in one another, to unite against the wicked man.

"Aww look at you all together.." Mokure licked his lips, his tongue began to lengthen to an unnatural size resembling a serpent.

"So cute"

He released a large amount of killing intent that flooded the area, making the children choke and gasp for air. The mass effect of Mokure's raw power made them shudder, Hinata fell to her knees as she started to violently vomit and Naruko following suit. This seemed to amuse him, Mokure began to chuckle uncontrollable.

"I'm so sorry did I really do that.." Mokure began to crackle like a manic, the children on the ground shaking in random spasms. "I just can't help myself!"

Sasuke began to feel his body give out on him, looking beside him Naruko and Hinata laid nearly dead. _'No! Not like this, It's weird but I can't let them die or myself. My death will not come today or theirs!'_.

Firmly planting his hand on the ground Sasuke propped himself up on one knee, slowly he began to form hand seals. Steadily he began to speed up, puffing out his chest, he filled his lungs with chakra.

"Hmm sorry kid but little flames isn't gonna cut it" Mokure began to draw near toward the trio, taking Sasuke lightly as he prepped his kunai for killing.

"You're done here Sasuke" Mokure licked the kunai, before quickly flipping it in a reverse grip, launching toward Sasuke with a burst of speed. "It's over!"

Sasuke manged a light smirk, _'Good thing this is my modified version!'_

**_"Fire Style : Scorching Sun Explosion!"_**

Just inches away the kunai was from stabbing Sasuke in the throat, before a roar of flames burst forward scorching Mokure's hand. The fire erupted from his mouth than began to swirl and spiral into a sphere of flames, the flames licking the grass below incinerating it as the sphere grow bigger and bigger. The attack became dense and full packed, pushing forward in a rotating motion the ball began to travel forward smashing into Mokure dragging him along.

The sphere launched ahead pulling down the forestry ahead as it, burning all of it down with its strength and speed, suddenly a powerful light colored the sky.

**"BOOM!"**

The backlash of the explosion so powerful it knocked Sasuke down completely, the rest of his chakra drained he passed out.

...

"Kosatu hurry I found them!" A blur of white suddenly arrived, Hiashi rushing to his daughter. Falling to his knees when he found his baby girl passed out barely breathing. Looking up Hiashi saw Kosatu cradling his child as well, hugging Naruko to his chest.

"We have to get them to hospital now" Hiashi stood holding Hinata bridal style, careful to hold her tight. Kosatu nodded in agreement, but halted when he noticed Sasuke.

"Is that Fugaku's boy?, Sasuke Uchiha, what is he doing here?" Kosatu placed his hand on Sasuke's neck, he breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to find he still had a pulse.

"I don't care, now come we must hurry!" Hiashi sped off, leaving Kosatu behind to handle Sasuke. Kosatu holding Naruko looked to Sasuke, then studied the terrain.

Looking closely Kosatu began noticing signs of battle, he spotted a smelted kunai and further ahead Kosatu noticed signs of a fire justu burning a path through the forest. Using his better judgement Kosatu summoned a shadow clone that picked up Sasuke, quickly with his clone Kosatu followed after Hiashi.

_**XXX-**_

_**Konohagakure Medical Center, Two Hours Later**_

The multi-sounds that made up the daily commotion of hospitals, woke up the normally heavy sleeper up. Sasuke blinked his eyes multiple times trying to get use to the powerful lights.

"Dang so bright" Sasuke wheezed out, his throat extremely dry from hours of no water plus constant fireball spamming. His eyes finally starting to focus and adjust to the environment noticing blank white walls, instead of his colorful light blue ones.

Laying in a strange uncomfortable bed, wearing a white gown instead of his normal clothes. Totally freaked out by the unfamiliarity of his location, trying to move he fall short when he noticed his arms restrained to bars on the bed.

"Where the hell am I?" Sasuke yelled out, The creaking of the door alerted Sasuke as he noticed the blurry figure of someone through a small window. A strange woman came into the room, smiling warmly at him. Noticing the women he was completely freaked out, the rareness of seeing a villager smile to him had always been an omen.

"Stay away from me!" Sasuke squirmed more, trying to break from his restraints. The women obviously confused, tried to comfort Sasuke.

"Sorry to startle you but I'm here to help-"

"Stay away!" Sasuke screamed making the women jump a bit at Sasuke's irrational behavior. The women reached for her medic kit, pulling out a syringe, she came closer to Sasuke despite his pleas.

"I not here to hurt you Sasuke, I'm gonna give you something to put you back to sleep ok" She smiled weakly, hoping to calm the fearful boy.

"Nooo!" Sasuke finding the strength miraculously ripped his hand from one of the ties, this scared the woman she began to call for help. Sasuke yanked the other restraint so hard he pulled a piece of the bar off. Leaping from the bed he ran forward pushing past the women.

Scared and confused Sasuke rushed past other women who wore similar outfits to the first and past men in white cloaks, one man reached for Sasuke but made the mistake of underestimating him.

"Gawh!"Sasuke grabbed the dangling bar from the restraint and brought it across the man's face, laying him out cold infront of others. Leaving the man in his own puddle of blood, Sasuke continued his sprint through the hall. Pushing pass people, rushing down the hall in a frenzy.

Coming to a dead end with only a window, Sasuke turned back to see more men in white cloaks gathered together trying to get him. "Grab him" one of the men called. Sasuke looked back considering the jump from what seemed to be the eighth floor.

Prepping to leap out the window Sasuke was halted when he felt strong arms around his body, holding him down as he struggled to get away.

"Hurry doctor this little bastard is as strong as an ox" One of the beefier men yelled to the young man with a syringe, rushing forward the doctor drove the needle into Sasuke's exposed butt cheek. Immediately the effects came upon him, as steadily the boy's strength dwindled to that of a bug. Putting him asleep.

**_XXX- _**

**_Two more hours later_**

"Sasuke.."

The sound of his name began to awake the boy out of his forced sleep, his eyes slowly began to flutter until they full opened. Adjusting and focusing on the person who called his name.

Groggy and tired Sasuke gave a weak grin, when he say the old man at his bed side.

"Hey Gramps, how are ya?"

Sarutobi couldn't help but chuckle, he remembered the reports he received about all the havoc this young men caused when awoke. It was hard to believe that the nearly eight year old was such a hand full, and not even in the academy yet.

"Hello Sasuke-kun, you know you caused an awful lot of trouble for me. And even worse a load of paperwork sitting on my desk, all relating to you" Sarutobi pointed at Sasuke.

Sasuke grinned sheepishly, embarrassed at how much trouble he caused. "Sorry I was just freaked out by-" Trying to move, Sasuke was pissed to be restrained once again but now much worse.

"What the hell old man?" Sasuke looked over himself, since he could only crane his neck to see his bondage to the uncomfortable bed.

"Sorry Sasuke but the staff refused to give you any medical attention if you weren't strapped to the bed. So it's for your own good " Sarutobi stood once more, dusting his Hokage robe and grabbing his hat.

"Medical staff..so this is a hospital?" Sasuke asked with all seriousness, this surprised Sarutobi never had he ever heard of a kid who never saw a hospital. But then again Sasuke was no average kid.

"Well I must leave now Sasuke, you're designated to stay here overnight. And report to my office tomorrow morning" Sarutobi informed Sasuke while retreating from the room.

"Wait old man!" Catching the old Hokage's attention.

"Did my father come visit me? Or my brother?" With the question the old man seemed to tense up, though Sasuke couldn't see his face he was sure the old man wasn't giving the best news.

"Sorry Sasuke but the staff records show no one visiting you expect for myself" Sarutobi spoke while leaving the room, not looking Sasuke in the eye.

Sasuke barely heard anything the old man had even said, Sasuke was still studying the room never ever had he dreamed of ever seeing a hospital unless he was visiting someone. Sasuke never had to have treatment, he never was injured long or sick. So all the little details were as gigantic to him as just being there in the hospital.

The room smelled of sterilization and artificial life, but also despite being a place to prevent the living from dying the place stench of death as well. It was strange feeling of tottering between life and death, it would suck to spend your time there if you were injured. Sasuke decided from that moment on he didn't like hospitals.

_**XXX-**_

_**Elsewhere**_

Dragging his half limp body through the burrowing tunnels that led from Konoha to a small secluded village, Mokure swore to himself as he reminisced on the turn of events that resulted in his injury.

"That little bastard is going to pay" He began to get closer to his employer, he could feel the very temperature of the area steadily decrease to icy levels. He sported serious battle wounds, his left arm took major damage the first thing to feel the scorching of the flames. Limp and dangling everytime he moved, Mokure continued on.

Entering a large spacious room that was lined with lite torches along the wall, they offered little light to the cold and dark room.

"You return"

The deep voice of Mokure's employer bounced off the walls giving it a booming effect, normally such a man would scare off people. But Mokure was different, standing before his employer who sat upon an old throne.

"You failed. Correct?" The man was very blunt and straight forward when it came to business. Mokure could only nod his head, he stood silently, not proud of his performance

"There are few reasons why I didn't complete my assignment, I underestimated the cleverness of the young heiresses. And the miscalculation of-"

"Sasuke Uchiha"

"Yes.. he was a unexpected factor that threw off the entire mission" Mokure explained, the figure of the man seemed to move a bit, not satisfied by the results.

"And I assume he did that to your face as well-" The shadowed man broke off into a dark chuckle, so chilling that even the greatest warriors would cry out in fright.

Mokure's face suffered major injury, the skin on one side barely hanging on. Revealing chalk white skin with thin lips, and an amber eye with a slit in the pupil. A major contrast to the other half that consisted of his Mokure Uzumaki's light brown eyes and lightly tanned skin.

"Orochimaru"

Reaching for his face, the man yanked off the rest of what was Mokure Uzumaki's face and ripping off his clothes. Releasing a mane of long dark hair, he wore plain grey garbs with black pants. And a thick purple rope belt tied in a large knot behind his back and blue tomoe-shaped earrings.

"What now?" Orochimaru questioned the shadowed man

"We prepare Konoha for bloodshed, despite this set back we will go on as planned" The answer bringing a wicked smile to Orochimaru's face, the man licking his lips with his freakishly long tongue.

"Kukukukuk, I like the sound of that. But what of young Sasuke"

"The jinchuuriki will be taken care of soon, but for now leave him be"

_**XXX-**_

_**Konohagakure Medical Center, Next Day**_

The creaking of Sasuke's hospital room door, caught his ears the awoke Uchiha eyeing who was entering. Still was he paranoid about being in a hospital, but no one made any attempts on his life at least as far as he knew. The same nurse from last night was in his room once again, but this time with company.

Two muscle head chunin stood by the door incase Sasuke tried anything, this annoyed Sasuke to no end. It was a simple mistake and misunderstanding could people not understand that. Guilt began to build up on him when he considered how frightened the woman probably was when he went nuts, and ran off.

Since he was pretty much at her mercy and didn't want to give her a hard time he just sat there while she checked his vitals. After a few minutes the woman felt comfortable and signaled the men to leave them. Straining his neck Sasuke turned his face to the side to face her, the nurse to busy to notice him though.

"Hey.." Sasuke spoke to her, but she didn't seem to hear his low voice. Coughing a bit, Sasuke tried to get her attention. But she was to absorbed in her duties to notice Sasuke's actions, tired of trying Sasuke tried something else.

"GAWH!"

Startled the woman jumped up, Sasuke's cry of pain making her drop everything to tend to him. "Are you ok?" The woman seemed a little out of breath, and worried. Something Sasuke never received from a woman. It was new, and he liked it. Beginning to laugh like a mad men, the nurse confused formerly believing he was in pain.

"Got ya! Sorry about the trick but I needed to get your attention somehow" Almost ready to knock the boy over the head for scaring her half to death, instead she found herself amused by him laughing at herself a bit.

"Was that the only thing you could think of?" She seemed exasperated with Sasuke nonchalant way off scaring her so easily, as if nothing happened.

"Pretty much" Sasuke gave a foxy grin

As they continued to talk Sasuke found himself drawn in by the warm aura that the women gave off. While the woman despite having work to do somehow ended up side-tracked, spending hours talking to Sasuke. It was something Sasuke realized he never had until he met her, he learned her name was Kakari Haruno. A woman of petite size but shapely and curvaceous enough to attract the male population, the most unusual thing about her was her brightly colored green eyes and bubblegum pink hair.

When Sasuke asked her about it she became slightly upset, and thought he was insulting her. But would immediately be drawn back in by Sasuke's bright personality, and courteous manners. But sadly good times had to come to an end, the opening of the door after hours of seclusion, knocked Kakari back into reality. A fellow colleague at the door, a young nurse who seemed happy to find Kakari.

"Kakari-san I been looking for you forever-" the young nurse halted when she saw Sasuke "Umm Kakari we have to get back to work!" the nurse left quickly slamming the door.

"Well its been fun Sasuke but I must go now" She took out a key, unlocking Sasuke's restraints. This pleased him greatly, quickly he jumped on Kakari hugging her in thanks. His head buried in her chest innocently fondling her breasts, Kakari too nice to consider the hug perverted, breaking away Sasuke began to stretch some happy to be able to move again.

"Your clothes are in that closet over there" Kakari pointed to the other side of the room, Sasuke nodded a thanks. "And as soon as you dressed you have permission to leave the hospital Hokage-Sama wants to meet you so you may leave when your dressed"

Sasuke began to walk toward the closet grabbing his folded clothes, they seemed to have been washed. Immediately Sasuke turned to Kakari, "Thanks Kakari for taking care of me, and for dealing with me. I know I can be a hand full sometimes".

Kakari not fully understanding the significance of the simple duties she performed for Sasuke, to him it was like having a mother. She smiled at Sasuke, affectionately ruffling his hair.

"No problem Sasuke-kun"

Kakari began to leave the room waving bye to the young Uchiha, watching her leave Sasuke began to feel heat rush to his face. Blushing furiously while grinning like an idiot.

_'She called me Sasuke-kun!'_

Quickly Sasuke began to get dressed, throwing on his clothes and using the bathroom to wash his face. About to leave the room he remembered he was leaving his tools pouch, going back he grabbed the pouch.

Lifting the pouch he noticed a crisp envelope that had his name written in calligraphy. "Hmm what's this" Sasuke studys the envelope before savagely ripping the letter open. The paper was only printed with the seal for 'lighting'. Strange as it was the letter had no other information, just a piece of paper with a single seal.

"Wow great use of trees" Sasuke believing it to be a prank, flared his chakra in vexation. Suddenly the seal began to glow, blinking bright like a beacon. When his chakra stopped flaring the seal stopped glowing, curious Sasuke tried again but had trouble.

Not use to channeling his chakra, he focused on forcing the chakra to flow through his hands. Not working now Sasuke was pissed, he began to flare more chakra unconsciously his anger controlling him. Pumping out more chakra over and over, with failed results, crushing the paper in his hand he grunted.

Sasuke eyes taking on a blood hue and slited pupils, red chakra seeped into the seal. "Dammit why won't you work!"

Sasuke throw down the balled up piece of paper, looking up he was suddenly face to face with the old man . "Ahh what's going on!?" Sasuke jumped back in surprise, freaked out, where did the old man come from all of a sudden? Sarutobi amused by Sasuke's reaction of the seal's purpose, so were his guests.

The sweet giggling of a girl alerted Sasuke, craning his neck he turned to see four other people in what he thought was supposed to be his hospital room.

"Hello Sasuke, nice to see you again" Sasuke dumbfounded, it was the girl from last night. Hinata was her name he thought, next to her was a very serious looking man who seemed to study Sasuke.

_'He doesn't seem like anything special'_

"Sup doofus" The rougher tone of Naruko caught Sasuke's attention, almost instantly making his attitude change from excited to pissed.

"You!" Sasuke pointed at the red-head, still upset about the way she man handled him last night. Next to her was a man of tall stature brown hair and eyes with tan skin. Most likely her dad, he seemed amused by the interactions between him and Naruko.

Sarutobi cleared his throat gaining everyone's attention, he began to introduce everyone to Sasuke. "Sasuke the man before you is Hiashi Hyuga, head of the Hyuuga clan" Sarutobi gestured to the noble who seemed too prideful to talk to Sasuke, or so Sasuke thought.

"You saved my daughter's life, for that I am very grateful. Thank you" Hiashi bowed respectfully to Sasuke. "And as you know by now this is my daughter Hinata" Hiashi pushed his daughter lightly toward Sasuke.

Blushing slightly Hinata was embarrassed to be so close to him, but liked it. She bowed respectfully as well to Sasuke, "Thank you S-Sasuke for being so brave and saving us"

Sasuke flashed a handsome smile at Hinata, making her become further nervous and love struck. "No problem Hinata-chan!"

"And this man before you is Kosatu Uzumaki, head of the Uzumaki clan" The brunette beamed brightly at Sasuke expressing his thanks more freely than the Hyuuga.

"Sasuke-kun it takes guts to do what you had done last night, I am very thankful you did what you had. Or I wouldn't have my princess anymore" Kosatu hugged his daughter, Naruko became embarrassed trying to push her dad off. "Daddy let go" not letting go Naruko thanked Sasuke while trying to pry her Dad off.

"I guess I also would like to say thank you for your help in fighting that traitor" Naruto muttered, not wanting to give anything to fuel his ego

"Yeah I know I'm pretty rad huh" Sasuke smirked at Naruko, further pissing her off.

Sarutobi feeling all the thanks was out of the way, it was time for business."Sasuke you and I will talk further in private about the situation, but now will you three please leave us adults to talk"

"Sure thing old man" Sasuke headed for the door with the girls following behind him. Once the door closed the atmosphere became grave, suddenly Sarutobi began a series of hand seals. Completing the justu, a transparent barrier was placed over the office, a safety precaution of no information to be leaked somehow.

Taking a seat behind his desk again, he gave the two clan heads the signal to start talking. "What did you find out about last night?"

Kosatu stepped forward pulling out a scroll, rolling it across Sarutobi's desk, activating the seal a stack on papers appeared. "From what we were able to gather, this was a planned task. Someone knew that Hiashi-san and I would be meeting specifically on this date and must have infiltrated my compound that same day"

"To get away from my guards, we believe he drugged them. Then let most of them drop dead from the poison we found in their autopsy. Akiza most have been the one to escape because he made it to us to warn of the impostor"

Hiashi handed Sarutobi pictures of the bodies from after the autopsy, the photos very graphic and disturbing making the old Hokage shake his head. "I'm sorry for your lose Hiashi-san"

"Thank you, Hokage-san"

Hiashi followed up on Mokure's report of last night events, "We believe this was an attack from the cloud village, they have always been interested in my clan's dojustu. Whoever the infiltrator was they weren't smart enough to study up on their character. Naruko stated she saw through the spy's falseness, through error of Mokure Uzumaki's personality"

Taking in the information the two men were debriefing him on was shocking indeed, someone personally targeting two of Konoha's most prestigious clans. "Apparently he led Naruko and Hinata away from the compound in hopes of killing them with no difficulty, though he didn't expect the arrival of Sasuke" Hiashi continued

"If Sasuke hadn't arrived when he did they would be dead, when surveying the area a large amount of ash was coating the area of forestry. He used some powerful fire style justu that did extensive damage to the Mokure-impostor" Kosatu finished the debriefing.

"Do we have evidence of the spy's disposal?" Sarutobi questioned, interested in whether Sasuke was skilled enough to have incinerated the spy with one attack.

Pulling out a zip-lock plastic bag, handing the bag to the old Hokage to study. Confused Sarutobi didn't know what to make of it, he asked what it was.

"Sir it's the impostor's disguise, it looks and feels like skin" Kosatu gravely disgusted by the person who did this. Meanwhile Sarutobi studied the skin, something about the detail and style of espionage was familiar.

"What about the body? Mokure's body?" Sarutobi had to be sure if his theory was accurate.

"Sir there was no evidence found of Mokure's body, nothing at all. No blood to trace, hair or anything" Kosatu explained, the predicament confused him and the entire clan.

"Hiashi..Kosatu..you are both dismissed"

Both man bowed and headed for the door, leaving the old Hokage in his thoughts. Getting up the old man faced the window staring at the beautiful village he swore to laid down his life for, years ago.

_'If Orochimaru is back, then we must be ready. We have no time for treachery, we have to be a unite or be crushed as pieces'_

Grabbing his pipe, the old man put some tobacco inside. Lighting the pipe with a small fire justu, taking a long inhale he walked toward the door.

_'We are in for dark days, but the future is still beaming with multiple possibilities'_

* * *

**Hey everybody good to be back again after such a long break from writing, this revised chapter was specifically very tricky. It had to be done to make up for the mistakes I made the first time around when I wrote this fic. So revisions are pretty much mandatory. **

**Anyway hope you enjoyed the revised chapter two of Turn of Events, and will stick around for more. The next update will be a the revision of chapter three so be out on the look for it.**

**Character Profile : Kosatu Uzumaki**

**Before the coming of the Third Great Shinobi War, Konoha experienced a flood of immigrants from many parts of the world. The majority of the incoming people being of Uzumaki lineage. Kosatu Uzumaki, an immigrant orphan from the Land of Rivers and a distant descendent of the Uzumaki clan, came to Konoha at the ripe age of six. During times of peace Kosatu had no plans with his life, so jumped at the chance to become a shinobi. Meeting and befriending Minato Namikaze, making a friendship that would last for years. As years went by Kosatu grew into a fine young man and shinobi, soon taking the hand of Kushina Uzumaki in marriage. In the present Kosatu lives his life as head of the Uzumaki clan, with his wife and daughter.**

**Appearance**** : Kosatu is a tall man, with a strong athletic build. A mane of brown hair, that he normally wears in a single ponytail, and light brown eyes with a farmer's tan. Kosatu normally wears very traditional, loose fitting robes with a long-sleeved, blue haroi.**


	3. Clean Slate : No Where To Go But Up!

_**Turn of Events**_

_**Disclaimer : I do not in any form own Naruto.**_

_'Thoughts.'_

_"Reading."_

**_"Justu use/Very loud talking."_**

"Normal dialogue."

* * *

The Hidden Leaf village laid peacefully nocturnal under the brilliant glow of the moon and starry sky, but while many villagers and shinobi themselves laid their bodies to rest. The Third and his councilmen began their heated arguments over the fate of the village, and its occupants. Hiruzen for the hundredth time that night resisting the urge to scorch his former teammates with one of his multiple fire ninjustu, he instead inhaled a breath of air, calming his nerves and allowing the others to speak.

"The situation with the Uchiha is steadily escalating. And with the recent infiltration in the village, we need to be at full strength and have complete loyalty coupled with trust." Koharu calmly spoke with clear resolve, though her eyes stayed squinted the entire rant.

Koharu Utatane was an elderly woman of advanced age, she kept her gray hair pulled back in a twin bun and locked by a traditional Japanese hairpin with two pearls dangling off the side. She had much history with the old man, but wouldn't allow their past to cloud her judgement.

Sharing the same resolve as his long-time companion, Homura Mitokado calmly pushed his glasses back. Homaru also was a former teammate of The Third, he was an old man with spiky gray hair. And wore a constant frown that he has always worn, even in his youth.

"Agreed. The Uchiha will be the 'Achilles's heal' of Konoha if we are attacked, they could easily turn on us." Homaru stated with nothing but bluntness in his tone.

The Third found himself vaguely visualizing how the Uchiha could betray them, they would have a reasonable excuse. The first few years after the passing of the Kyuubi attack, the Uchiha became hostility discriminated against by many shinobi and villagers alike. The absence of the clan during the attack left much to be imagined, suspicion of the clan's betrayal spread like wildfire. Sarutobi did his best to put to rest those suspicions, until the village was stable once more.

But the Uchiha couldn't wait, the level of paranoia rose to such an extreme high. Violence broke out between the Uchiha and the villagers, leaf shinobi against the clan as well. No one had the patience to wait out the dilemma, so Sarutobi and his councilmen decided it would be best for the Uchiha to be relocated to a more secluded area of the village. Allowing them to avoid the brunt of the citizen's anger, until the village was whole once more.

"As we know many of the Uchiha during the attack of Kyuubi, were missing for a lengthy period of the disaster. Their whereabouts even now is still a mystery to us, but in order for Konoha to experience a full restoration. We must forgive and forget past evils, we have too many troubles to hold distrust among comrades. The Uchiha and Senju founded this village, and established a union that everything here has resulted from. Turning our backs on the Uchiha, is no different from turning on the Senju." The Third spoke his peaceful alternatives to his peers.

"True but was it Hashirama-sama who had abandoned the village, or was it the envious bastard Madara?" Koharu pestered Sarutobi, she herself had no faith in the Uchiha.

"I know that the village and the Uchiha have been tip-toeing around conflict for decades now, but for the sake of the next generation, it's time for a formal new establishment of the union that brought this village together." Sarutobi laid his chin upon his interlocked hands, praying silently for the village to be a trusting union.

Suddenly the doors of the private conference swung open with tremendous force, an elderly dark-haired man strolled inside casually. He had black, shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged heavily concealing it. He wore a white shirt with a black robe over the top of it that covered from his feet, to just over his right shoulder.

"Danzo, what brings you here? If you have not noticed we are not socializing here?" Homura narrowed his eyes at the unwelcome man. Danzo stood stoic before he spoke.

"I am an elder of this village as you are, and believe that the fate of the Uchiha should be determined by the villages most experienced shinobi." Danzo was a man of old age similar to his peers, he walked with a nearly invisible limp. His only aid was his cane while he strolled over to the other elders.

"We appreciate your concern for the future of the village, but we do not need any radicals as yourself Danzo." The Third found himself sneering the man's name with disdain. Danzo wasn't fazed by Sarutobi's tone, he made no attempt of fixing their past friendship. It didn't matter, only the preservation of the leaf was mandatory.

"Call me what you want Hiruzen but we all want what is best for the leaf, and I intend to do what has to be done for the survival of this village. If I am a radical, then you are a hypocrite." Danzo narrowed his eyes at the old Hokage, no one dared address the 'God of Shinobi' but him in that way. The room grew tense and thick with the large flowing amounts of killing intent radiating between the two men.

"I do grow tired of these incoherent ideas, and believe that Danzo's input will bring us the solution to this issue." Koharu spoke out, rallying with Danzo.

"Agreed. Danzo's wisdom along with our own adds to the betterment of the problem solving process." Homaru folded his arms across his chest, both councilmen accepting Danzo's help.

_'What?!' _

The Third once again had to resist the primal instinct to burn his peers with a powerful fire ninjustu, Sarutobi took a puff from his pipe, cooling his nerves a bit. Though he and Danzo had been at odds with each others for decades now, Sarutobi couldn't deny how genuine Danzo's love for Konoha was. Exhaling a stream of smoke from his nose, he stroked his scruffy goatee a bit.

"What do you propose we do Danzo?"

Danzo seemed to have expected the old Hokage to give in, he turned Hiruzen's own councilmen against him. "The Uchiha are untrustworthy, even during the early days of Konoha the Senju and Uchiha only joined together to be the strongest and end their senseless warring between each other. Each side still harbored bitter feelings toward each other, and was forced to get along."

"They never wanted anything to do with this village, we cannot allow deception within our walls to destroy us. When the problem is within our reach." Danzo stretched his hand out in a dramatic pose before clenching it into a fist.

"So to answer your question Hiruzen I believe we need inside ears to keep us updated on the Uchiha." The Third was amazed at the level of paranoia that must have eaten at Danzo for so long, to insist that they spy on their own comrades.

"And where exactly would we find such a person?"

Koharu was the one to question the Danzo's plan first. Her doubt in Danzo's plot was followed by Homaru's own hesitation. "Precisely, you can not send in a shinboi to spy on the Uchiha. They would be spotted easily by the multiple trained Sharingan-wielders. No outsider can infiltrate and disguise themselves among the Uchiha."

The Third could not help but chuckle a little on the inside, just as the councilmen turned on him. They just as quickly turned on Danzo. "I never said send in an outside ninja, that would inevitable fail. I intend to assign this task to a Uchiha." Danzo spoke his plans with a stoic face, but his tone expressed a sly smirk.

"It is safe to assume that none of the Uchiha would betray their own clan, for a village that doesn't even respect their existence." The Third shot down Danzo's scheme with extreme prejudice.

"It's funny you mention that."

Quickly Danzo snapped his fingers, a poof of smoke erupted to his right. Beside Danzo kneeled a young dark-haired boy, the elders stared at the boy. His presence was not anticipated, and his identity was unknown. The dark locks that obscured his features slid out of his face, Itachi Uchiha rose to his feet standing beside Danzo.

"Itachi?"

The Third had a gut wrenching feeling when Danzo mentioned an inside Uchiha, it only made sense to pick Itachi. Itachi was the eldest son of Fugaku Uchiha, the clan head, he possessed respect and authority among the Uchiha and the leaf shinobi despite his age.

"Yes Itachi is my prime candidate to spy upon the Uchiha, so far he has been successful in his reconnaissance." gestured to the young man beside him, Itachi stood silent as if he were an automaton.

"So far? You have already been spying on the Uchiha?" The Third seemed upset by this revelation, but he had to admit it didn't surprise him as much. Danzo always did whatever he wanted, he went behind Sarutobi's back all the time.

"Yes Itachi has delivered me information about the Uchihas' plans for months now. They are planning to overthrow Konoha." The elders seemed to be surprised by this, what could encourage the young shinobi to betray his own clan.

"Itachi tell me is this true?" The Third questioned the young Uchiha.

"The Uchiha are planning to start a revolt, they are going to destroy everyone and everything not of the Uchiha." Itachi spoke with the utmost lack of emotion, while the elders were considering the next course of action.

"So lad since you are telling us this, you must hold some resentment toward your clan. Correct?" Koharu stared hard at Itachi, though it was hard to tell how since she was always squinting.

"No, I harbor no hatred toward my clansmen. I care for my people, but I know the consequences that could result from a civil war between the Uchiha and leaf shinobi. If we are at war with one another, our enemies could take advantage of the conflict. And take us all down. I will do anything to keep those horrors from coming upon this village." The elders took in the wise words of the pre-teen, his insight was to be praised.

"I will do what I must to preserve peace, to stop the bloodshed. Everything and anything is mandatory, deceiving my family, even killing my family if it achieves peace." Itachi remained stoic as he explained his actions, he knew what he was doing. And he realized he had to do it, Sarutobi had to hide his anguish for the boy. Itachi sounded just like Danzo, which was a good thing but bad as well.

"So Hokage-san, what do you suggest we do?" Danzo hid an all-knowing smirk , as he took a seat beside the other elders. Plans had to be finalized for what needed to be done with the Uchiha, and Itachi would undoubtedly do his job. But did he know the life of agony, shame, and infamy he was volunteering himself for?

_** XXX - **_

_**Sasuke, The Next Morning**_

It was still decently too early in the morning for Sasuke to be up, normally he would sleep in till ten. The sun was starting to peak over the Hokage monument casting a great shadow over the village. Sasuke chose to ignore the stares he got so early in the day, he was in an unusually good mood today. He even ignored his father's verbal abuse, Sasuke continued his relaxed pace as he could see the great gates of the Uzumaki clan in the distance.

Sasuke could make out in the distance multiple men assembled before the gate, no doubt increasing security after the enemy infiltration of the Uzumaki clan just days earlier. Since his releasement from the depressing hospital, Sasuke spent the last few days getting to know Naruko and Hinata. To say that the two girls were interesting was an understatement , the two were great friends he instantly took a liking to them. Oddly enough Sasuke had realized Hinata and Naruko were probably his only friends. True he had the old man, Itachi, and now Kakari-san. Technically he couldn't count them since they were either adults or family, so he did have real friends for the first time.

The thought brought a small smile to his face, that was quickly dropped when he saw the serious gazes that the Uzumaki men gave him. A plump round man of large stature with his long red hair spiking back, stepped to Sasuke and without warning grabbed him. Sasuke paralyzed with fear couldn't move as he was bear-hugged by the large Uzumaki.

"Welcome! Welcome! Welcome Sasuke Uchiha!" the large man and others cheered loudly.

"Wait what's going on?" Sasuke utterly puzzled by the kindness they showed him. They began to laugh at him, his confusion amused them all. The large man wiped a small tear from his eye, he playfully slapped the Uchiha's shoulder.

"You're a riot kid." Sasuke smiled uncomfortably at the group, not accustomed to the degree of attention he received from them.

"I'm Hayasi Uzumaki and these are my fellas." Sasuke tried to keep up as Hayasi pointed to each face assigning a name to the new faces. "That's Ukada and Tokare." A pair of identical twin brothers of strong build each with shortly trimmed red hair and blue eyes, stood tall giving friendly nods and smiles of approval.

"Yakasho's right there." Hayasi pointed to a man who, had his crimson hair in a pineapple ponytail style, and looked to have just woken up. He gave a lazy wave and closed his eyes again, drifting back into his nap.

"And Ryuuto here is the one of the finest swordsman in the clan." A boy who looked barely thirteen jumped to greet Sasuke, he gripped his hand and shook excitedly.

"Hi! I'm Ryuuto Uzumaki! Oh wait Hayasi already told you that! How are you doing!? Do you like swords, cuz' I do! Let's spar!" Ryuuto was considerable tall and lean even for a preteen, his red hair was complimented with yellow highlights and it spiked up resembling flames. While his green eyes sparkled with excitement of the chance to make a new friend, he grinned excessively.

"Umm-" Hayasi stepped in pulling free Sasuke's hand from the annoying swords master, after getting all the introductions out of the way, Hayasi recognized the anxious look in the Uchiha's eyes.

"So what can we do for you young Uchiha?"

Shaking off his sudden timid persona, Sasuke returned to his confident self. "I'm here to see Naruko, we-"

Before he could finish his sentence the uproar of the men drowned out his words, they began cracking up once more, this pissed Sasuke off.

"What the hell is so funny?!-" Sasuke growled angrily, he was about ready to punch the plump Uzumaki right in the kisser.

"The young man wants to collect his reward from the rescued heiress!" The older shinobi laughed their butts off except Yakasho, ignoring the heated glare of Sasuke as his cheeks grew pinkish in tint.

"Shut up you bas-"

"What the hell is going on here?" A, strong yet soothing, voice silenced the noise in the entire area. The Uzumaki men suddenly froze in place, all of them sharing the same expression of panic.

"Well?" The voice was coming from behind the large figures of the guards, obscuring Sasuke's view of the person of authority.

"Forgive us Lady Kushina, we were only chatting with the young one." Hayasi spoke while he and others bowed before the voice, Sasuke found himself staring at a highly attractive woman.

Like the Uzumaki men before Sasuke, she had the trademark crimson hair, lengthy and vivid. "She looks like Naruko.." Sasuke mumbled to himself as he tried to avoid the hard gaze of the woman.

"Sasuke Uchiha," Her voice now had a tone of intelligent curiosity, she strolled past the men, and stopped in front of Sasuke.

"Sasuke Uchiha, son of Fugaku Uchiha. Right?" Kushina's face inches from his own as she stared at the boy, studying his features.

"Um yes ma'am." Sasuke sweated invisible bullets under Kushina's intense eyes, she was intimidating in many ways, yet suddenly satisfied she beamed at him as she ruffled his hair.

"Nice to finally meet you Sasuke." Almost immediately Sasuke felt Kushina tug him along with her, toward the gate of the Uzumaki compound.

"Open the gate. Now." Her voice deepened once again as she uttered the command, contradicting her kind behavior just a moment earlier.

"Yes ma'am!"

The twins, Tokare and Ukada, stepped before the great dark blue gate, Sasuke watched closely as they pulled up their sleeves. The faint glow of focused chakra appeared around their forearms, sealing tattoos formed upon them like a spreading fungus. Quickly the twin shinboi broke off into a chain of swift hand seals, after finally forming the last seal both paused.

"Akeru!" **(1)**

Simultaneously the Uzumaki slammed their palms against the gate, the forming of large symbols upon the gate followed their actions. The multiple kanji symbols glowed a brilliant white hue, dispersing as the gate fell apart piece by piece in a swift transition.

"Awesome."

Sasuke gawked at the impressive sealing technique of the Uzumaki, the art of sealing was always a subject that piqued his interest. The strong tug of his arm alerted Sasuke to Kushina's successful effort in dragging him somewhere, suddenly remembering his goal, Sasuke tried to wiggle free from her iron grip.

"Hey lady, I can't just let you pull me through here. I need to find my friend, we have somewhe-" Sasuke managed to get his arm free, causing them to stop in the middle of the street.

Kushina whipped her head around staring at Sasuke with some confusion, she frowned at the Uchiha.

"I thought you wanted to find Naruko?"

"Gah! Who are you woman? I just trying to find my friend." Sasuke was starting to lose his patience, he didn't have time for games with strangers. Sasuke found himself silenced by the woman, she grabbed him by his shoulders making him look her dead in the eyes.

"You are determined to see my daughter aren't you?" The question took Sasuke by surprise, his face instantly took on an expression of disbelief.

"What!? No it can't be true." Kushina smiled at Sasuke's reaction, showcasing his disbelief so strongly others stared at the pair. "Believe it kid, she's my mini-me. I didn't introduce my self properly." She flashed a foxy smirk resembling Naruko's own.

"Pleasure to meet you Sasuke, I am Kushina Uzumaki. Wife to Kosatu Uzumaki and mother to Naruko Uzumaki." Her voice once again shifted from kind to aggressive, she began to pull the Uchiha by his collar.

"Now come with me."

"Ack gawh!" Sasuke couldn't breathe as Kushina yanked him ahead by his collar, choking him in the process.

_**XXX- **_

_**Naruko**_

"Dad, I'm just going to the training fields with Sasuke and Hinata-chan." Naruko stood before her father trying very hard to persuade the man to let her leave the compound, but Kosatu seemed very set on not letting Naruko go. Naruko paced within the simple yet elegant office of her father, her eyes passed over the valuable painting that told stories of their ancestry in the Wave Country. Beautifully flowers that were only a product of the Uzumaki's specific ecosystem with unique tones and hues, littered the room with precise organization. She stomped her small feet against the smooth and polished brown wood floors and sent a flustered glare at her father.

"I'm sorry sweetie but I don't want to take any unnecessary risks, especially after the danger you were in earlier this week." Kosatu shuffled through a stack of documents while defending his actions, never taking his eyes off his work.

"But Daddy, we will be more careful this time. And at least we will be in broad daylight, the village is still on high alert because of that imposter." Naruko argued her case, sure of it being pure logic.

"And there is nothing wrong with being secure and sure of your safety, so it is best if you stay home the rest of this week." Kosatu put his foot down now, exercising his parental and authoritative powers.

"What? No that's like holding me hostage dad, don't you have faith in my skill." Naruko's eyes hardened, she slammed her hands on Kosatu's desk, startling her father to pay attention to her.

"I was able to use my memory and detective skills to determine something was off about Mokure, and my investigative instincts helped me discover the truth. If it wasn't for my quick thinking Hinata and I would be in body bags by now." Naruko became infuriated with the truth of the matter being that her father believed she wasn't strong enough to protect herself, and he was right.

"Naruko, yes I am proud and impressed that your sharp mind saved yourself and the others. But honestly he was only toying with you, and by a freak coincidence Sasuke swooped in on time and delivered a blow strong enough to injury the enemy." Kosatu sat aside his papers as his brown eyes became serious, yet his was voice calm and non-aggressive.

"If Hiashi and I had not arrived when we did, the enemy still could have killed you all while you all were unconscious." Kosatu stood from his desk, moving quickly to draw his child into a comforting hug.

"Naruko, there are still many years ahead of you and your friends to grow stronger." Kosatu encouraged Naruko while raking a gentle hand over her red locks.

"Don't undermine your strength baby, you're not even in the academy yet." Kosatu looked her in her eyes, their matching brown eyes reflecting each other and kissed her forehead.

"I know you will become a powerful kunochi someday." Kosatu flashed a sincere smile. "So until that day comes, I am sending The Boys with you as guards."

"Ugh not those idiots, all they do is tell lame jokes and make-up stories." Naruko sighed at the mention of 'The Boys', they were the best the Uzumaki had to offer but lacked greatly in personality. At least in Naruko's opinion after many run-ins with the warriors.

Just at that moment the knocking of the door alerted the father and daughter to the presence of her mother, and surprisingly the company of Sasuke.

"Hope we aren't interrupting this moment but Sasuke is here to see you." Kushina flashed a mischievous grin at Naruko, while Sasuke looked exhausted but irritated at the same time. There was no telling what kind of hell her mother put him through.

"Hey Sasuke how are you doing this morning?" Kosatu greeted Sasuke with a warm smile, which Sasuke returned with a groan.

"Tired and impatient." Sasuke gave a slight nudge to the woman beside him, Kosatu nodded in understanding of Sasuke's troubles.

"Yeah she is a handful." Kushina only smiled in pride at the comment, she prided herself on being very rambunctious.

"Well we gotta go, I'll see you guys later. Bye!" Naruko rushed out the office, yanking Sasuke by his collar in the process ; adding to his annoyance as he begin to be choked by his collar once more.

"Dang it -ack!Let go of me!" Sasuke's cry could be heard throughout the Uzumaki mansion, making Kosatu and Kushina bust out laughing at the children.

"They're so cute together." Kushina smiled watching the retreating pair race through the streets, the sudden feel of strong arms around her startled Kushina a bit before receiving a soft peck on her cheek. Kosatu left her side just as quickly as he came, heading toward the door.

"Indeed they are." Kosatu began to close the doors to his office, a sly smirk upon his face.

_**XXX- **_

_**Sasuke & Naruko**_

Together the two kids had managed to race through the streets easily, only halting by the call of an old woman. An elderly Uzumaki woman waved to them from behind a food stall, beckoning them over.

"Good morning children."

The old woman smiled which added more to the numerous and profound detail of her wrinkles, causing Sasuke to mentally shudder. Naruko returned the greeting with an enthusiastic grin, "Hello Ms. Duanya!" Naruko waved as she and Sasuke strolled up to the food stall.

"Oh! I see you have a friend with you this morning." Ms. Duanya peered at Sasuke, further multiplying her wrinkles.

"And who might you be young man?" The elderly woman seemed to study him the same way the others did, her aged eyes seemed to hold curiosity like Kushina's; and fortunately no fiery resentment in the old woman either.

"Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha ma'am." Sasuke gave a curtsy bow before flashing a polite smile to the woman, in return Ms. Duanya giggled like a schoolgirl.

"My my Naruko! He sure is a polite and handsome young man, what exactly is he doing around you?" Ms. Duanya voice carried a bit of teasing, giving a good-natured smile as the kids shared a red hue upon their faces.

"Ms. Duanya did you call us over just to tease?" Naruko was the one to find her voice, whining a bit at the old lady's mischievous ways. This elicited a knowing smirk from the woman as she brought a sack from behind the stall, loading them full with vegetables and fruits.

"Sorry, I got lost in the conversation but don't let little ol' me hold up your day. You two have youth to live up, so enjoy it children." She handed the sack to Sasuke who gave an appreciative smile, and an assuring nod before the two raced off.

"See ya' later Ms. Duanya!" They simultaneously called leaving the woman behind, as they raced through the compound.

"Such good kids. Oh dear the lad will have to live up his youth while he can, there is no guarantee he will see past sixteen." Ms. Duanya returned to her work with a peaceful aura about her, and a calm smile.

_**XXX- **_

_**Hinata**_

Hinata had managed to get herself up and dressed that morning with a precise care for silence, hoping not to alert anyone of her early awakening. Too her absolute delight the dangerous run-in with the missing shinobi caused her father to show a more compassionate side, one Hinata didn't see very often. But also this sudden softer side to her father came with the increasing strict leash he held on her social life, he wanted nothing but his daughter locked in the Hyuuga mansion.

Which would have been somewhat tolerable if Hinata had not recently made companionship among a few peers, thus solitude within the Hyuuga walls wasn't acceptable. With her training gear packed, Hinata directed chakra to her eyes.

"Byakugan."

Hinata whispered, her eyes becoming extremely perceptive and defined in the retinas allowing her to scan the entire Hyuuga mansion. The blue humanoid outlines she identified as people, all seemed to be preoccupied with other matters. No one guarded her front door, and the entire perimeter of the mansion had a patrols of jonin that passed her window in 1.45 second intervals between each other.

With enough analyzing and careful timing Hinata cautiously opened her double doors leading to her balcony, just in time to see the passing backsides of the guards. "Now." Hinata unraveled the 20 meter rope she had held in secret for years, she keep track of the passing time intervals before the next patrol's arrival. Quickly she knotted the end of the rope to a kunai firmly, already she had the other end attached firmly to the second kunai.

"40 seconds remaining."

Hinata muttered aloud to herself, she stabbed the kuani into the exterior of the house. Pulling the rope for sturdy support, satisfied with the strength of the zip-line. She grasped the other end of the rope, swinging the rope with wide arcs. Careful not to hit her window, her target in sight she released the projectile, the kuani hurled ahead with fierce speed before implanting itself into a great oak tree just outside of the Hyuuga mansion.

"20 seconds."

Hinata once again pulled on the line, impressed with the strength and appearance of the quick scheme. Yanking up her backpack the Hyuuga heiress pulled from her bag a piece of violet cloth, aligning her hands on the sides on the rope. The voices of the next patrol could be heard in the distance, making their way to the corner.

"10...9.."

Inhaling a calm breath to keep her resolve, Hinata leaped from the balcony. The fear of falling was replaced by the thrill of adrenaline, as she slid down the artificial zipline with immeasurable speed. The great oak coming in fast Hinata released her grasp of the cloth, dropping from the zipline into an impact absorbing roll.

"4..3."

Desperately with an unknown revenue of stamina Hinata leaped forward from her roll, yanking the zipline with all her strength. The unclasping of the kunai from the nearby tree alerted her to the success, but the other end was beyond her vision. Without any thought she instantly hid into the barely present shadow casted by the rising sun, virtually disappearing from sight.

"As I said we have to keep our eyes peeled for anything weird."

One gruff voice of a man spoke to another, addressing the other as nothing was noticed. The distant reply of the other guard was a sign that the guards had passed by without noticing the thin rope and kuani.

Hinata let out a contained breath in relief, she was in the clear.

"Ahem!"

The grunt of another voice alerted the young heiress to the presence of an unexpected person, Hinata found herself nervous under the unwavering Byakugan eyes.

_**XXX-**_

_**Sasuke & Naruko**_

The rest of their race to the clan resulted in anger threats from villagers, and a fierce debate over who was the fastest of the two. Closing in on the Hyuuga manor Sasuke wasn't surprised to find an assembly of Hyuuga men guarding the entrance, he wasn't sure if these men would be as kind as the Uzumaki.

Throwing a covert side glance at Sasuke, Naruko notices his nervousness. "Don't freak out Sasuke, the Hyuuga won't rip your head off." Naruko gave him a reassuring smile while approaching the Hyuuga. "Besides they're too proper to get blood on their hands."

Sasuke and Naruko were halted by the commanding voice of a young Hyuuga possibly only a year their senior, his Byakugan bulging and his features forming a calculative frown.

"Stop right there, you have no business here. Leave now."

Despite the young face and semi-fat cheeks of the Hyuuga boy, his voice carried an air of authority. Or maybe it was just that pompous Hyuuga tone that added to his despicability. Surprisingly it was Naruko who seemed unfazed by the boy's tone, she quickly grasped Sasuke's wrist. Restricting his movement to incite a moment to calm down, Naruko decided to do the talking.

"Sorry to bother you but we are here to see our friend, Hinata. We wer-"

"And as I stated already, leave now. No visitors are allowed into the Hyuuga compound unless permission is granted by Lord Hiashi. Besides Hinata would not affiliate herself with such hooligans." He sneered in disdain, casting a look of disgust at the pair but intended mostly for Sasuke.

In response, Sasuke reacted this time faster than Naruko could restrain his movements. The other Hyuuga guards immediately took up the Gentle Fist stance, all ready to put down the Uchiha. Sasuke stood with no care for the men surrounding him, he focused solely on the boy in front of him. His hand grasping the material of the young Hyuuga's shirt, Sasuke's infuriated eyes stared into the apathetic eyes of the Hyuuga.

"Release your hands from Captain Neji!" Sasuke didn't bother to pay any mind to the nameless guard that barked at him, he so badly wanted to grind the cheeky kid's face against barbed wire.

Naruko again found her voice in the quickly escalating situation, for once she spoke calmly hoping to restore the more reserved part of Sasuke. Instead of the impulsive beast that was showing its face at the moment, Naruko realized that an angry Sasuke was a foolish one.

"Woah there Sasuke! You need to take a step back and look at what you're doing." She stood beside the Uchiha, so close that she could whisper in his ear. The message seemed not to be heard as his lips curled in an anger snarl.

"I hate arrogant people, and this is one arrogant punk." Sasuke spared Naruko a quick glance, this glance was all that was necessary before Sasuke felt his world turn upside down.

Sasuke laid flat on his back upon the cobblestone ground, without warning Neji had skillfully broke the grip. With precise ease Neji turned while pulling the outstretched hand and bent forward with momentum. Judo flipping Sasuke with little to be perfected but the affect of knocking Sasuke out.

Neji stood over Sasuke while dusting off his shirt, barely concerned with having to defend himself. "I shall give you the benefit of the doubt, you have no idea of my reputation." Neji circled the recovering form of Sasuke, while Naruko tried to help him up.

"I am Neji Hyuuga, son of Hizashi Hyuuga and Captain of the 4th Royal Guards Unit. Yes I am young but do not allow my age to confuse you, my natural talent and my assigned task is immense. If I were not destined to be a capable warrior for my clan, you may have stood a chance. Dare I say it, you may have matched me-"

Sasuke hurled himself at Neji without warning, expecting to catch the Hyuuga by surprise. Neji was prepared for the oncoming fist that he held locked between his forearm and bicep, the veins of his Byakugan signaled his combat insight.

Without warning a rapid succession of pain erupted from Sasuke's right arm, Neji proceeded as he jabbed precise chakra point and muscle tendons. Instinctively Neji released Sasuke's arm in time to slide under the roundhouse kick from Sasuke, with a smug smirk, Neji observed his handiwork.

"My arm, I can't feel it, what did you do to me!?"

Sasuke's right arm hung limp like dead weight, he pressed his every muscle to produce a movement but the limb would not respond to his efforts. A sudden erupting roar alerted Sasuke to the large circle of people who had amassed around the boys. The combination of the excited faces of nearby villagers who spotted the action and the Hyuuga guards created a bloodthirsty crowd, ready to see a fight. In the crowd he found the worried face of Naruko who seemed to be trying to tell him something, but her voice was lost among the cries for blood.

"Watch out Sasuke!" Naruko tried to warn Sasuke but her voice failed to reach him in time, Neji suddenly appeared just inches before him poised to attack.

"Too slow Uchiha."

Caught of guard Sasuke take the full brunt of the assault: a palm to the jaw, spinning backhand to the face, painful jabs to the abdomen, double palm thrust to the chest. Sasuke staggered back from the force driven behind the palm strike, dazed, from the unusual taijustu assault and the roaring of the crowd did nothing to ease the ringing in his head.

"Sasuke! Get out of there." He couldn't locate the face but he knew it was Naruko among the increasing crowd, telling him to run away. Sasuke willed himself to find firm footing, he felt his dizziness fade and the ringing in his head ease.

'_Sorry Naruko, but running just isn't in me.'_

Sasuke swiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, he assumed a stance that mimicked a boxer. Sasuke's lone left fist leveled with his nose while he stood on the balls of his feet. Lightly shuffling on the cobblestone with an amateur rhythm, which did nothing but produce a nod in disappointment from Neji. With the few seconds he was spared Sasuke evaluated his standing against the young captain.

_'He's so much more faster than me, and his taijustu is beyond my own. Genjustu? No I suck at that, ninjustu? I don't have any stable justus! But there is the physical side of fighting, raw strength.'_

"Too stubborn to stay down and determined to prove himself, who are you trying to impress?" Neji pushed forward kicking up dust behind him while he held his Gentle Fist taijustu stance, determined to put Sasuke down.

_'And now!'_

Nearly missing his window of opportunity, Sasuke stopped shuffling his feet and solidified his stance. Planting his feet firmly down and tightening his left arm, he swung low in a wide arc. His forearm swung to connect with the raising forearm of Neji, forcing the arm down, and throwing off the path of Neji's intended left palm. Creating a huge opening that Sasuke capitalized on, Neji trying to recover from the brutish counter could not stop his own momentum ;Sasuke lowered his shoulders and shot forward at Neji's ankles, capturing and hoisting Neji over him.

Sending the Hyuuga captain face first into the ground, the crowd's volume intensified from the shoulder hoist that launched Neji over Sasuke. Not a stranger to taking damage, Neji pushed off his hands flipping to his feet. His formerly mannered and tamed brown hair was no longer held in a ponytail but distraught and loose, a small trickle of blood soaked his bandages that wrapped around his forehead. The crowd now revved up from the sudden counter that put Sasuke in a new light, was now calling for more blood.

He stood up once more ignoring the hungry eyes of the excited crowd, settling back into the Gentle Fist stance, his face set into a deep scowl. Sasuke began to shuffle his feet once again, lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet, being lighter than a feather on his feet was his only hope against the strange Hyuuga taijustu.

"Hn. Guess I was right, I am physically stronger than you."

Sasuke held up his left fist, still bouncing lightly in rhythm. This fight was the most exciting thing he had ever felt, this was different from being totally outclassed or in complete control. Sasuke formed an unexpected smug smirk that he did not do purposely, but actually happened naturally.

_'This guy is a few notches above me and I've barely touched him, I hate to admit it but he has me backed against the wall. But for some reason this is in some weird way..fun.' _

"What is so funny Uchiha?" Neji rushed Sasuke, whipping his arms in forward thrusts at nearly untraceable speeds. Neji's hands becoming nothing but blurs, but Sasuke manged to dodge all the strikes; Sasuke's light foot-work allowed him to lean his shoulders and waist back and forth swaying his body from the blows. But with great difficulty.

Shifting his shoulder back he solidified his stance once more, and struck out against Neji's thrust with his forearm. Literally slapping away the strike Sasuke followed by swinging his left fist back. Driving it into the kidney of Neji, releasing a stifled gasp and succeeding in stunning Neji. Sasuke continued on with an uppercut that caught Neji's chin. Sending the prodigy wobbling backwards before regaining his footing, he willed himself to continue the taijustu match.

Sasuke began to feel more confident and comfortable with his movements, allowing himself to adjust to the attack rate and slip through the strikes with just nanoseconds to spare. Beads of sweat ran down the brows of Neji while his breathing became labored with each failed strike, he was getting sloppy and missing normally assured hits.

_'He's starting to tire out, so I have stamina over him too. I have to drag this out just a bit longer.'_

"Ha! Is that all you got Hyuuga?, so disappointing to see your limit reached so fast!" Sasuke watched the bulging veins of Neji's Byakugan pulse strongly, a deep grimace set upon his face as his nostrils flared angrily.

"Shut up Uchiha!"

Neji lashed out with unprecedented rage, but this was the opening Sasuke needed. The palm thrust aimed for Sasuke's heart was exchanged, Sasuke shifted his body and sacrificed his paralyzed right arm instead, solidifying his stance he swung his left arm knocking away the hidden jab for his neck. Wide open and vulnerable to attack Sasuke lunged forward slamming his head with all the force he could muster, headbutting Neji directly in the face.

"Gawh!"

Blood flowed freely from Neji's nose, his head flew back from the force of the headbutt yet his stance remained solid. Sasuke stood frozen in place, he hadn't seen it coming but the thrust to his gut was devastating. The hidden attack punctured one of his internal organs; he dropped to his knees coughing up blood, and held his abdomen in pain.

Before he knew it he felt the dizzy sensation return again while, he could hear the roaring of the crowd die done. The question of which boy was victorious was a muttered topic among the calming crowd. Questions littered his barley functioning brain, Sasuke played the hundreds of scenarios that could reveal how his defeat had resulted. But none were better than the words from Neji himself, Sasuke willed himself to look into the tired eyes of Neji. No longer did his eyes bulge with the Hyuuga bloodline, but held the fatigue of a 9 year old with too much on his plate to handle.

"How? What did you-"

"My Byakugan is what saved me there in the last moments of the battle, that neanderthal counter technique you used was effective in catching me of guard the first time offensively and even the second. But in preparation for the third attempt I kept my Byakugan in overdrive to catch on to that counter. I hid the deadly organ strike behind the less fatal strike, ploying you to give your all to counter it and strike with your all. With the bait successful taken, I give it my all as well."

Neji wobbled a bit before falling flat on his face beside Sasuke, he remained conscious but had no energy to speak anymore. Sasuke smirked weakly, though bruised and somewhat embarrassed; Sasuke produced a weak chuckle, though so tired it was only audible to the silent Hyuuga beside him.

"Hn. I managed to push you to your limit, just as you did to me..."

"..Thanks." Exhaustion began to envelop Sasuke, and he collapsed into a disheveled heap.

"Sasuke!" Naruko pushed through the crowd, breaking into a sprint, then dropping into a knee slide to catch Sasuke's tired form. Naruko hugged his unconscious body to her own, so worried for his well-being, Naruko examined the dark bruises around Sasuke's handsome face. She cursed herself for standing aside while Sasuke fought the battle of egos with Neji, all of this could have been avoided.

**XXX-**

**Hinata**

"How could you be so reckless Hinata, your father would be so disappointed to see you betray trust in you. You must understand that he is only trying to protect you, he took it hard after your mother's death." Hinata stared into the blank white eyes of her uncle Hizashi who was the identical twin of her father.

"I-I know Uncle Hizashi, I love my father and a-apperciate his concern but I w-want to live my life. For the first time since my mother's passing, I am actually happy." Hinata and Hizashi walked away from the tree which Hinata had formerly used to form her escape. Hizashi seemed a bit conflicted, he always had a soft spot for his niece, afraid to look back into those sad eyes. Hizashi sighed in defeat, he gentle hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Which is exactly why I am not going to tell your father about this, and pretend I have not seen you today." Hinata looked up into the smiling face of her Uncle, she immediately latched on to him. Nearly making the man stumble over and fall.

"Thank you Uncle!" Hinata hugged Hiazashi with genuine appreciation for his selflessness, Hizashi removed her from him as they continued walking. He playfully ruffled her short raven hair, in the distance he could hear a distinct racket.

"But I must admit Hinata, I am very impressed you managed to plan such an elaborate escape even. You eluded the watchful eyes of multiple Hyuuga shinobi. That kind of skill is something not your father or myself could have done. That would be more of your mother's skill set."

At the mention of her mother for the third time in just a few minutes ; Hinata became heartbroken once more, she often dreamed of what her mother was like. The only thing she was told about her was that her name was 'Sukuma', which after a while became somewhat of a burden to know the name but have no pictures of her. Hinata once visited the clan library that held a record of all members of the clan deceased and alive, when searching for her mother she found nothing but a 'x' crossing out the name of 'Sukuma Hyuuga'.

Every since that day Hinata always curiously wondered what was the fate of her mother, was she exiled or executed? So many things left unanswered that Hinata promised herself to find the truth behind someday.

"Sasuke!"

"Captain Neji!"

The sudden cries of the two familiar people in her life snapped Hinata back to reality, before she could begin the process of running she felt the strong grip of her Uncle pulling her along. Hizashi threw Hinata on his back while he ran at full speed, in fluid transition, Hizashi planted his foot on the base of a nearby flower stand and propelled himself forward. Flipping through the air to rebound from another building, landing atop the Hyuuga gate. They looked upon the crowd that surrounded two young boys, Hinata nearly screamed when she saw Neji and Sasuke laying broken and bruised.

"There Uncle, Neji-san and Sasuke-kun!" Hizashi following Hinata's gaze, they leaped forward, landing near the Hyuuga guardmen. Hizashi pushed past the warriors to come upon the unconscious form on his only son, scooping Neji's lagging body in his arms , Hizashi turned his wrathful glare upon his son's lieutenant.

"What happened here?"

The senseless babbling of the guard did nothing to inform the man of what had occurred, angering Hizashi. Naruko now received assistance with the knocked out Uchiha, she stepped to Hizashi. Willing to clear the air about what had recently happened.

"Lord Hyuuga your son and my friend here." Naruko jabbed a thumb to Sasuke. "Had a bit of a disagreement that got messy very fast, we were simply here to meet up with Hinata-chan. But Neji was being very hostile."

Hizashi seemed to have no trouble piecing together what had caused such a huge scene, he knew how headstrong Neji could be. A boy with a very important position of power, allowed the power to get to his head quite often. The result was simply someone putting his son 'in place' for that arrogance, which Hizashi had no problem with.

"I see."

Hizashi muttered, turning his gaze upon the boy who did this to his son. Sasuke Uchiha seemed to be growing more and more popular as the week went by, his name was the topic of positive and negative gossip. Multiple stories of his heroic recuse of the two heiresses and unveiling a spy in the leaf spread like wildfire, and some altered tales of himself being the spy in truth. None really captured Hizashi's interest, he preferred facts to tales of heroism. The exhausted state that Neji was in proved clearly that the young Uchiha was something special, someone worth betting on.

With the clearing up of the previously scary situation, Hizashi had to hide the satisfied smirk that threatened to crawl up his face. Summoning the guardsmen back to their posts and ordering the crowd to disperse, Hizashi bid the children a farewell and carried his son back to the entrance of the Hyuuga compound.

"Uncle Hiazashi!" Hinata ran to her uncle in hope of catching his attention. Hizashi halted his steps, swiftly he turned toward Hinata, she stopped just inches from crashing into him.

"Will Neji-san b-be okay?" Genuine concern was clear in her eyes, Hizashi clearly able to see how much Hinata worried about her older cousin. Hizashi placed his firm hand upon her hair, once again ruffling it affectionately while smiling.

"Do not worry Hinata, Neji is a strong boy and will be fine. He will suffer nothing but a bruised ego."

Trusting her Uncle's words Hinata gave a grateful smile, Naruko called requiring her help with Sasuke.

"Now go on Hinata before your father learns of your disappearance."

With that last act of kindness from Hizashi, Hinata run along to her two friends. Helping Naruko with Sasuke's heavy frame they began their struggle toward the hospital. Now the hospital in sights , the sudden call of an unfamiliar voice set Naruko into attack mode. Hinata suddenly felt all the dead weight of Sasuke press on her, Naruko lunged forward attacking the stranger.

"Woah!"

Naruko found herself being raised in the air by her leg, the stranger held her with ease, his posture radiated calmness. From further study of the stranger and ignoring the profanity that Naruko spat out every second, Hinata determined the man was an anbu operative. The black symbol on his left bicep was clearly visible, he wore the standard anbu attire with the addition of an oddly fashionable zig-zag red and white sleeve.

His mask was simple yet foreign in its design, though dully white with the illustration of animal teeth and fangs. The onyx eyes of the mask were outlined with a spectacular crimson red, resembling blood upon a savage beast _-wolf-_ perhaps. And the kanji _'Loyalty'_ seemed permanently engraved into the right cheek of the wolf's mask, as if it had seeped through into the man's actual face too, which was wrote in the same crimson hue. The shinobi's white mane of hair did more to add to this illusion of a man-wolf hybrid, he was truly distinguished among the anbu with that kind of get-up.

"My apologies young Uzumaki for sneaking up on you, but I didn't feel like explaining myself to your bodyguards." He gestured to the sudden appearance of a squad of four men clad in matching heavy, dark blue, battle armor; and weapons drawn and poised for eliminating.

They each wore pale porcelain masks that were detailed of diverse and elegant dragons, all were similar and indistinguishable in appearance save for the leader. He stepped forward each samurai-like warrior parted for the man whose armor had traces of silver and gold throughout the design, unlike the others who all wielded a number of katanas, he held a large battle-axe.

"Drop the girl, or someone's getting the Skull-Splitter. I already have it out and I'm itching to chop someone up with it." The masked man donning the white dragon mask, removed his mask and helmet revealing his mane of thick spiky crimson hair.

"Hayasi! I knew Dad was sending you guys but I thought we had lost you guys in the crowds." Naruko frowned at the plump man who looked more like a sumo wrestler than just a fat man, and the intimidating axe did much to add to the peaceful giant's killing intent.

"Don't worry kiddo, we'll get you out of this pinch! Right fellas!" With the morales of the men arroused they launched forward together, closing in on the masked man. Swiftly wolfman grasped Naruko's wrist gently, and twisted his waist throwing her at the oncoming attackers. Hayasi stepped forward kneeling down as he caught the Uzumaki heiress, Ryuuto taking the opportunity drew his second katana he leaped forward from Hayasi shoulder. Driving himself with great momentum allowing the head on clash of Ryuuto's katanas against the wolfman's single kunai, Ryuuto pushed forward with all his strength slashing horizontally at the waist.

"Hoho got ya!"

Anticipating the slash the wolf-man bent backwards perfectly evading the blade by just the skim of his mask, he kicked out with his foot smashing into Ryuuto's armor throwing the boy into the oncoming warriors behind. Hand springing from the momentum of the awkward yet powerful kick, the wolf-man flipped over Hinata. Gaining some distance from the crowd of people who before were trying to attack him.

Sudden fear filled Hinata's mind as she realized Sasuke was no longer in her arms, but now she stared at the unconscious form of Sasuke draped over the wolf-man's shoulder. The armed warriors rushed forward in desperation. "We won't let you get away bastard!" All the men charged the wolf-man, in response he tossed Sasuke into the air and blurred through a chain of hand seals.

**"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Justu!"**

Heat immediately began to swell up in the vicinity while the fires of the wolf-man rolled forward toward the group of people, instantly the Uzumaki men jumped into action throwing themselves in front of the flames to protect the heiresses. One lone man stood before the havoc, he stood firm and uncaring of the blazing flames. As the mass of the fierce element roared forward with untamed might it closed in upon him, swallowing him up.

"Yakasho do it now!" Hayasi's command roared over the power of the flames, with quick reaction to the orders. The flames seemed to freeze in place as their path toward them had ceased. The twins laughed in excitement, though both shinobi were wearing mask the glee was clear in their voices.

"I love this part!" Tokare and Ukada hollered in excitement.

**"Secret Art: Wind Tunnel of Imprisonment"**

The flames began to retreat from them reverting from every direction the flames went and the harsh whistling of strong wind wailed in the area, the formerly believed burnt Yakasho stood center as the flames were sucked into the dark void in his palm. Absorbing every inch of flame with roaring winds of power and restrainment, Yakasho strained to hold his vortex open as the last of the flames vanished.

The vortex closed and Yakasho formed rapid hand seals that glowed upon his hand and disappeared after. Safely locking the power of his cursed hand, placing his glove back on Yakasho regrouped with the others. Ryuuto was the first to express the awesomeness of the technique, begging once again for Yakasho to teach him. Ignoring the young swordmaster, Yakasho accepted the praise of his comrades.

"Nice save their Yakasho, you always come through with that justu." Hayasi patted the man on his back, proud to be friends with such a man.

"Alright that should be just about everything, so let's head out boys." Hayasi addressed the group of warriors.

"Wait a minute! Aren't you forgetting something!"

Naruko jumped in front of the Uzumaki men, glaring them down the same way her mother would have but she couldn't produce the fear in them..yet. Hinata stood beside her looking as if a demon had stared directly into her soul. The men were taken by surprise by the sudden outburst, but quickly caught on to the two heiresses sudden panic attacks.

"Ohh! Yeah don't worry Sasuke's in good hands. Kakashi wouldn't do a thing to hurt the boy." Hayasi waved the topic off nonchalantly, he strolled ahead with his comrades falling behind after a run-in with their old friend.

"Gah! I was so close to getting him this time! I'll get Kakashi-sama next time we meet! This I promise!" Ryuuto declared to the entire village, following behind Hayasi with the flames of determination burning in his eyes.

"Awwh shut it Ryuuto." Ukada and Tokare barked in unison following after Hayasi.

Yakasho offered his hand to the two girls, inviting them to tag along with them. "Are you ladies up for some barbeque?" Yakasho spoke in his reserved and monotone fashion, but still expressed a hint of kindness in his low voice.

Despite being shaken up about having their injured friend kidnapped by some masked wolf-man, surprisingly the offer to lunch was very much welcomed. Both girls grasped a hand of the selectively mute but kind man and followed the others.

"Sure we're up for barbeque." Naruko answered for the both of them, shaking off the earlier feeling of panic. While Hinata remained mute and frozen from the series of events, she looked back toward where the wolf-man had escaped.

"But what about Sasuke-kun?" Still confused on the matter of if she would ever see him again.

**XXX_-_**

**_Sasuke _**

Sasuke began to feel his stamina reaching full capacity, he awoke from his forced nap. The memories of the fight with Neji still fresh in his mind, he touched his jaw, feeling for its sensitivity. Not surprised when he felt no pain, he always healed quickly. The instant he awoke he felt the intense pressure of a familiar chakra, this one was unmistakable to the raven boy.

"Old man." Sasuke set up right from the sofa he laid on, noticing The Third filling out some paperwork while keeping an eye on himself. Hiruzen acknowledged Sasuke with a brief smile before returning to the papers, he worked tirelessly.

"How did you sleep Sasuke?" The old man continued to fill the papers while he acted as Sasuke's physician, he rose steadily from the sofa into a groggy stretch.

"Dandy, I would say." Sasuke not sure what to expect from the old man, either a lecture or a simple talk. Not in the mood for anymore lectures Sasuke slipped The Third a farewell and nearly ran for the door. Only the conquering flare of Sarutobi's monstrous chakra stilled the eager child to halt, once The Third was satisfied that he received Sasuke's attention. The room returned to its normal temperature once Sarutobi's charka dwindled down to a less intimidating level, Sasuke turned cautiously toward the Third.

"Was that really necessary?" Sasuke plopped into a chair, sitting himself in front of the Hokage. Hiruzen nodded a silent yes, while pushing aside his documents to make room for Sasuke.

"Sasuke you-" The Third began spoke clearly before being interrupted.

"Before you say anything old man, just let me say this." Sasuke cut the old Hokage off, he crossed his arms over his chest in defiance.

"It was not my fault. The Hyuuga had it coming to him." He settled into a stubborn frown, ready to debate any who opposed his statement.

Sarutobi simply nodded in response, he gestured to Sasuke to wait a moment. He reached into his desk pulling out a pipe and a hefty scroll the size of a ninja pouch the old man began to drop small grams of tobacco into the pipe while igniting it with a small flame. Sarutobi inhaled the essence of the herb before exhaling a stream of smoke.

"I agree." The old man spoke sagely with an air of wisdom surrounding him.

"But I- wait what? You're not mad about the fight?" Sasuke had to make sure he heard him correctly, it wasn't often that he was let off the hook for this kind of trouble.

"I understand Sasuke that sometimes, you can not hold your tongue when you have things to say. I was very much like you as a lad, Tobimara-sama constantly had to drill into me lessons of discipline and self-control. At that age I honestly saw no reason for such punishment, but now I see that without discipline we turn ourselves into monsters." The Third grimaced at the memory of a certain student. The downcast expression was followed by a smile for his childhood foolishness and the sense of nostalgia, he exhaled a powerful stream of smoke while stroking his goatee.

"It is up to you Sasuke to keep yourself on the right path, I can simply offer my experiences and knowledge to you. I cannot force you to be a certain way, and I will not ever force my will upon you." The Third was sure that he had the full attention of the Uchiha, his eyes rarely held such a serious gaze unless in anger. Sasuke simply sat there as the words of The Third rocked his very core, no one ever spoke so honestly and gravely to him unless in disrespect. The Third truly did care about Sasuke's well-being, but was willing to allow him growing pains that came from youth.

"But enough talking, I didn't call you here to talk your head off." He pushed the large scroll that sat on the table toward Sasuke, allowing it to roll into his lap. The Third immediately could see the hesitant and surprised look in his dark eyes.

"It is for you my boy, consider it a reward for your actions. I believe one day you will become the Hokage, and if not that then a respected hero to the people. This scroll is the little push in the direction you look toward."

Sasuke sat dumbfounded, the swelling of emotions in his heart was too much for him to hide. "Thank you old man, really for everything. I'll make you proud." Sasuke gave a true smile that was rare to see in this village, as he swiped at his watery eyes to stop his joyful tears.

"I know you will, now if you will excuse me I have somewhere to be." The Third stood from his chair and walked Sasuke to the door, waving the boy goodbye. Surprised when he felt the sudden attachment of the young Uchiha upon him, Hiruzen smiled to himself and accepted the hug with an embrace of his own.

"Thanks Gramps, I'll see you soon. I need to get to the fields!" Sasuke zoomed toward the stairwell, almost knocking an old man over.

"Oh sorry sir, Kinda of in a hurry." Sasuke called back while racing down the long array of stairs.

The old man simply ignored the child while he caught sight of The Third, they shared a look of mutual disdain. The old bandaged man stopped just before Sarutobi purposely not bowing to the old Hokage, to express his belief of equal authority. They shared an intense staring match that made even the Hokage's secretary feel so uncomfortable that she took a bathroom break, they broke their stares to exchange firm handshakes.

"Danzo, I see you made it here just fine." Sarutobi spoke precisely while keeping the edge out of his voice.

"Hiruzen, you seemed tired my friend. Maybe we should discuss such severe issues without you. Just so you may be at full strength for the village's sake."

Hiruzen resisted the urge to attack Danzo right then and there, he smiled as if the accusation amused him. An arrogant smirk played upon his features, while he strided toward the Council Hall.

"No my friend I am just fine, my village needs me in all issues and concerns. I will be there, besides Tobimaru-sama entrusted me to protect this village with my life." Sarutobi explained with the utmost detail stressing his assigned title by their former mentor.

Hiruzen didn't have to see his old companion's face to know he struck a nerve, he grinned a bit at his cruelty as they walked to the council meeting.

_** Sasuke**_

_**-xxx**_

"Let's see what exactly we have here."

Sasuke entered the vacant training field not to far from the Uchiha estates, considering that the clan was located in the outskirts of Konoha. It left Sasuke a quick alternative place to train since he never was welcomed in the clan dojo or field. Sasuke quickly made his way through the mid-ankle reaching grass, to a tree that cast a large shadow from the nearly set sun. His Father would not bother worrying if Sasuke return home late, Sasuke doubted if the grumpy man cared at all if he returned home.

Sasuke sat relaxed against the gigantic tree while he observed the justus described and modeled in detail, The Third had written these himself. Sasuke recognized the old man's writing from being in the office so much, the old man took the time and effort to go into great detail about all the kinks of the justus.

The scroll required nothing but a small apply of chakra which was signature-based for access, most likely only being accessable to Sasuke and The Third. After surveying the lists of ninjustu, taijustu forms, genjustu, exercises, and tips. Sasuke's interest was attracted by the small section titled 'Shadow Clone Justu'. Taking time to carefully read the notes that the old man left for him, which would allow mastery of the technique, he silently read aloud to himself.

"_The Shadow Clone technique created by co-founder of the Hidden leaf village, Madara Uchiha, allows the user to divide their chakra up by the number of clones created to form solid clones. Solid clones have unlimited uses, just as reliable and useful as a real shinobi. When a clone is destroyed, the memories and experiences of the clone transfers to the orignal which can be a benefit at times. This technique is S-rank, and is taxing to the chakra reserves so use with caution Sasuke_."

Sasuke grew excited at the possibilities that having solid clones could create for him, forget illusions who needs that when you have a real army. Jumping to his feet Sasuke began to examine the model of the hand symbols necessary to form the clones, he nearly laughed at how simple it was. Snippets from his bout with Neji, and his run in with Mokure left him shaking with anticipation for rematchs.

_ 'I will be stronger, next time around.'_

Shaping his middle and index fingers into a cross, he allowed his immense chakra to flow and released it as a roaring maelstrom.

_**"Shadow Clone Justu!"**_

* * *

_**Taijen here, that's it for Chapter 3 of Turn of Events : Reloaded. Proof-reading these long chapters are such drags, but it's worth the praise and honesty from the readers. Honest thoughts (even flames) are welcomed and thanked, any questions about this fic or others please PM me! Laters!**_

_**Word Count : 11,304**_

_**(1). Akeru means 'to open' in Japanese.**_


	4. Times of Change : Bad Blood Surfaces!

_**Turn of Events**_

_**Disclaimer : I do not in any form own Naruto.**_

_'Thoughts.'_

_"Reading."_

**_"Justu use/Very loud talking."_**

"Normal dialogue."

* * *

Through a large green forest, the tireless tapping of sandals upon a dirt road echoed through the area. A simple rhythm that was mimicked twice each interval for two days now, before the flow was disrupted by the sudden halt of a pair of sandals. This led to the complete interruption of the ongoing tapping of shinobi sandals, the only sound that flowed through the nearly deserted area was the sigh of tired man.

"Come on kid, you're wasting daylight. We agreed to travel until we were in eight miles of the leaf. This is nowhere near that goal." The older male spoke to the stubborn seven-year-old that dared to defy him, even though the man was pretty chill he did demand respect very often. In response the child only turned his back to the man, his brown hair that defied gravity shook with his head in defiance.

"No, I don't wanna go to the leaf! Why couldn't we just stay at the temple!" The child yelled at the adult, well young adult, the guy was barely in his twenties and had been his caretaker for as long as he could remember.

The young man really did do his best to watch over his nephew, after the death of his sister, the boy had no one since his father was K.I.A. Surprisingly his sister on her death-bed begged him to be the one to raise her son, not their father. In hindsight he still wondered if his sister was in the right mind when she made the decision, the responsibility was thrust upon him when he was merely a teenager trying to figure out his own life. With the best intentions in mind he packed up all his things and left the village with his nephew, in hopes of providing a safe and honorable raising.

"Look. I know this is difficult leaving behind the only family you've known, but trust me when I say your life will only become better in Konoha. No worse, but actually better."

The man by now had walked to the child while he silently wept to himself, the boy hoped his uncle would not notice. He laid a comforting hand upon his nephew's shoulder, and swiftly turned him forward into a tight embrace. Allowing the boy to cry out his pains, doubts, fears, and bad memories.

"I miss them uncle, Sora and all the monks. I can't forget them!" The child's weeping ceased now, but he glowed with a determination that was common among their clan. In response the older male gave his nephew a playful smile, before punching him teasingly in the chest.

"That's good to hear. Now toughen up kid, or I'll put you through the 'tears equals fear' training program!" The man yelled out in a militant fashion, instinctively making the boy shape up and drop his childish fears.

"Yes sir!"

The seven-year-old showed great maturity and strength for such a young child, without warning his ears twitched, he caught the speechless message sent to him through his uncle's eyes. A storm of kunai and shuriken emerged from the shadows of the forest and rained down upon the area casting a great shadow over the pair, prepared and fearless they deflected the projectiles with flawless expertise between the elder shinobi and the shinobi in training. They countered the thrown tools that rained upon them with swift swipes and blunt blocks, this filled the air with brilliant sparks due to the non-stop clash of metals.

Abruptly the endlessly onslaught of cruel weapons ended, to swiftly be replaced by squads of armed men, they seemed endlessly as the figures emerged from the forestry aligning themselves into a tactical advantage. Clearly they were not just petty thugs, but an assembly of mercenaries. They all wore moss-green heavy combat vests, black baggy pants, black shinboi sandals, black fingerless gloves, and each carried one to two katanas. Each merc hid his face behind a white mask that was covered by a large black spiral.

A far more distinguished figure pushed through the crowd, unlike the others this mask was blood-red and his katana sheathes a similar hue. The merc stepped closer to the pair that was surrounded, he pulled out a scroll which he quickly unraveled. The voice that erupted from behind the red spiral mask was gruff and irritated, clearly he believed this was a serious duty but rather had been somewhere else.

"Asuma Sarutobi! You have committed treasonous crimes against the innocent of the Fire Country, and will face your reckoning. By the sacred vow of victory of the Mizuga clan, you shall die a merciless death here and now." With that out of the way the paper spontaneously bursted into blues flames quickly reducing it to ash, the man allowed the coming gust of wind to take the ashes from his hand.

The man known as Asuma Sarutobi had to resist the urge to curse his terrible luck, just a few more hours of non-stop movement and he could have been in the clear. Asuma looked toward his nephew, who seemed to only be waiting for his command to spring into action. Asuma could literally feel the waves of excitement coming from the boy, literally the boy was unintentionally flaring his powerful chakra which like his uncle was of the wind nature. Thus sending powerful but uneven gusts of wind to their surrounding audience, deciding to let the boy break loose a bit, Asuma pulled from his side pouch a dark bandanna emblazoned with fire in kanji. He unwrapped the cloth revealing trench knives, carefully he placed the blades upon his tan hands and sighed in relief.

_'Feels good to be reunited.'_

A whimsical smile came to Asuma, the memories of his greatest victories due to the weaponry he held caused nostalgia in the warrior. Returning his attention to the situation at hand, Asuma clenched his fists while he adopted his offensive boxer stance. The roaring wind that seemed to be holding back the enemy forces for the previous moment ceased, Asuma nodded to his nephew in approval. The boy's eyes immediately glowed with excitement, he burst into a childish grin, the child slammed his foot upon a fallen kunai among the array of failed weapon strikes and popped the kunai into his left hand. Now dual wielding kunai the boy launched forward without warning into the crowd of six mercs he faced.

"Yoho!"

The boy yelled with a strange excitement for battle, his burst of speed startled the first merc who was victim to vicious gash across the arm which was followed by a roundhouse kick to the head. The burst of chakra behind the kick hurled the merc into his equally surprised teammates, the child laughed before he noticed a pathetic slash for his head. He swiftly turned on his heels and intercepted the blades by crossing his kuani in a 'x' guard, sensing more danger he cartwheeled to the left. Narrowly avoiding a cheap shot, allowing his former opponent to take the 'hidden' incoming slash that was originally intended for him. Effectively cutting the innocent warrior in two with the sharp steel, and littering the dirt with his blood.

"Get it together men, the Mizuga clan will not be bested by a child!"

Passion burned in the leader's voice as he charged Asuma in concentrated rage, Asuma brought up his blades to counter the katanas. Forcing a moment of one-sided struggle while Asuma easily suppressed the swordsman. Asuma offered the masked Mizuga a lazy smile, while smoking a cigarette, this infuriated the masked leader who pushed with all his strength following through with a fierce slash. Asuma let up at the last second, leaned his head below the sword slash, and jumped back a few feet to observe the battlefield. In his peripheral he could see his nephew toying with the men. Though they were a decent clan of warrior, these men could not have been no more skilled than a fresh genin. Asuma found himself ignoring the raging squad leader to reprimand his nephew, he called to him casually with no concern.

"Yo! Konohamaru finish off these guys pretty quick, ok? I promised the old man we would be back to the leaf by tomorrow afternoon." Asuma finishing his quick chat, instinctively sidestepped the would-be deadly sword strike. **(1)**

"Hear ya loud and clear uncle!"

Konohamaru flashed a grin before he vaulted over a merc, shifting his body in an impressive show of acrobatics, kicking the merc in the back as he soared over. Pushing him into charging comrade, causing the two mercs to hysterically crash into one another, this produced obnoxious laughter from Konohamaru

"Your fight is with me Sarutobi!"

The masked leader completely lost his cool and slashed at Asuma with impressive speed, but still the smoking shinobi was out of the man's league. Asuma moved barely out of reach avoiding a fatal strike, but couldn't save his cigarette; the cancer stick was sliced unevenly from the sharp blade despite the crappy swordsmanship. Lashing out Asuma thrust his knee into the man's gut, hurling him back from the unforeseen strength and speed. The Mizuga man skidded back, holding the broken section of his ribcage.

"That was my last cigarette, now I have to wait till I get to the next town to get another. That was a mistake."

Asuma's killing intent radiated from him like heat from a miniature sun, the masked man nearly lost the nerve to fight. Asuma blitzed toward the man, suddenly he phased out of existence, the man looked to his right just in time to see Asuma cocking back his killer right hook.

"You wanted me so bad, well now you got me!"

**_XXX-_**

**_Konoha Military Police Station_**

The Konoha Police Station bustled with the rapid movements of officers and secretaries, the sound of business rattled throughout the entire building, this was common chaos among the workers and officers of the police force. Despite the abnormal levels of noise that reached every inch of the police station, one secluded room was the exception. The office of commissioner Fugaku, the head of the military police force, he sat stiffly in his large chair as his subordinate gave him terrible news.

"Sir, the disappearance of Shisui Uchiha is a massive blow to the coup d'état. Without him we would have to rely solely on Itachi's connections to Konoha's Intelligence Division."

Iyu Uchiha was a large and swaggering shinobi with the signature dark eyes of the Uchiha and a low trimmed dark fade, Iyu stood over six feet and had a physique chiseled from marble. To match his menacing appearance, Iyu's eyes held a constant thirst for battle and he fought with a ferocity unlike any other Uchiha. This made Iyu Uchiha the perfect enforcer and lieutenant to Fugaku Uchiha, who rarely disappointed his commander but this news made him the scapegoat for once.

Fugaku Uchiha had short, black hair that reached to his shoulders and onyx-colored eyes, with visible creases below them made more pronounced when he adopted a stern look. The deep scowl that formed upon his face further pronounced the creases below his eyes, his eyes shifted to the crimson hue of the Sharingan, Iyu barely resisted the primal urge to fidget nervously under his commander's glare.

"What do you mean Shisui is missing? Where was his last public appearance, no key operative could just mysteriously disappear without someone knowing his importance. Meaning that they are aware of our coup d'état." Fugaku spoke calmly through seethed teeth, trying hard not to lash out against his enforcer.

"Sir, I have already sent a few squads out to gather intel from witnesses around the village." Iyu tried to calm Fugaku with any uplifting news that was possible, Fugaku rose from his chair and leaned against his desk just a few feet from Iyu. Arms crossed over his chest and features schooled into a calculating frown, Iyu recognized this specific act as Fugaku's 'thinking pose' as the officers deemed it. Finally after a few moments of pure silence, except for the constant ticking of the office clock, Fugaku snapped from his trance and locked eyes with Iyu.

"We must determine what has become of Shisui, his disappearance threatens our plans we must be ready to throw ourselves into the depths of conflict immediately. Sarutobi and his council could be aware of our revolt, so we must act as if we are unaware of their knowledge. But be prepared for any assaults upon our clan." Fugaku grabbed his dark haori that hung from his chair and headed for the door with Iyu on his heels, though Iyu had spent many years following Fugaku's lead but now felt the need to voice his concerns.

"Hmm sir what about-"

Before Iyu managed to finish his nervous appeal to Fugaku, the older male whipped around, he turned his intimidating death glare upon Iyu silencing the young man with just his raw killing intent. Without warning Iyu lost his natural born ability to breath, as Fugaku clenched Iyu's throat with just his single hand. Lifting the giant man a nice foot above his head, Fugaku's Sharingan burned holes in Iyu's confidence and made Iyu's reputation pale in comparison to this single startling moment.

"Do you dare question my leadership Iyu after all these years of trials!" Fugaku's chakra flared dangerously sending waves of killing intent through the hallway, Iyu struggled against the iron grip of his commander. Despite the anger his commander expressed, Iyu did his best to please Fugaku but he found it extremely difficult to explain when his windpipes were being strained.

"Sir...ple-ase...I was...jus-t...suggesting...you alway...me to lead...the investigation...I figured...you...you...would want...to sign up...your son..." Iyu wheezed out in desperation, the strained sentence that Iyu tried to utter did manage to spark Fugaku's interest. At the mention of his children, the sane side of the clan head returned, he suddenly released the lieutenant allowing him to fall in a disheveled heap against the floor.

Fugaku's eyes lost their fierce Sharingan and reverted to the normal onyx color, he glared at his enforcer who rubbed his throat for its sensitivity. Crossing his arms over his chest once more and taking a few steps back to assure that he would not lash out against the young Uchiha.

"Speak Iyu." Fugaku glowered at Iyu as he sat up against the wall, very much reminded of why Fugaku Uchiha was the most feared Uchiha of the entire clan. Or at least the most dangerous one alive in these times.

"Sir..I only meant to remind you that the reopening of the shinobi academy is drawing near. I just thought that I could handle the troublesome issues that surrounded our plans, and allow you the time to sign 'him' up."

The instant effect the news had upon the police chief was subtle yet penetrating in the intended effort. His scowl lightened just the slightest as his eyes grew soft at the mention of his youngest son, Sasuke Uchiha, the boy was not always in the forefront of Fugaku's mind. Itachi was the sole receiver of the man's attention nowadays, but even without the physical affection he showed the child, Sasuke was an important part of his tiresome life.

"Right..well I appreciate your consideration and leave you in command of the investigations until I return." Fugaku turned on his heels and left the lieutenant to sort things out himself, thoughts of Sasuke began to completely overtake and cloud his mind ; already Fugaku had absentmindedly bumped into officers and a few secretaries who would insist they were to blame, Fugaku simply ignored them as he strolled home.

_'Sasuke.'_

**_XXX-_**

**_Uchiha Manor_**

Sasuke had objected to his actions but the temptation was too great, he stared at the solid gold doorknob that was actually the detailed head of a dragon. The starkly fierce eyes of the doorknob dragon did arouse the objections of Sasuke, those eyes seemed to foreshadow the type of punishment he would be subjected to. Sasuke stood merely inches from the door, he wanted to just simply run in and leave just as quickly. But honestly he knew just getting a look would make his yearning for the contents behind the door to increase further.`

_'Just do it. Nobody will know, Dad's at the police station. And Itachi is..being Itachi somewhere.'_

Sasuke had to use logic to build up the courage to reach for the door, with much confliction, he took one more look in all directions. He sucked at chakra sensory but he was sure he could sense his father's or Itachi's chakra signature if they approached. Unless they were being the trained shinobi drones they were and constantly masked their chakra, even within clan walls. Sasuke reached for the door handle, grasping the cold metal of the knob he twisted to his left, and pushed with little effort. Sasuke's eyes widened noticeably at the sight of the treasures that the room contained, inside the room they were rows upon rows on scrolls and amazing weaponry.

_'The Secret Study of Shinobi.'_

Sasuke recalled the name from a passing group of Uchiha chunin, they spoke of the study as if it was a thing of legend. Sasuke overheard that it supposedly housed ever jutsu the Uchiha had created, learned, or stolen from others and amassed into a collection for clan usage. Sasuke knew of the Uchiha Clan Archives which were public but contained less desired jutsus and teachings, but the famed secret study had everything! Sasuke was not disappointed as he observed the shelves stocked with scrolls ranging from ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, fuinjutsu, kenjutsu and many more areas of jutsu.

Suddenly a sole item caught the young jinchuriki's interest, the entire left wall was home to a large array of diverse weapons. Blades, staffs, demon windmill shuriken, knives, spears, and etc. Sasuke set his sights on a onyx metallic hilt that hung upon the wall among the impressive weaponry, it looked pathetic in comparison.** (2)**

_'What a joke.'_

Sasuke reached for the hilt to see what possible use could a blade-less hilt be to a shinobi. Suddenly his hand was captured by larger tan hands, he was forcibly turned to the Sharingan of his father.

_'Dammit. Of course he masks his chakra in his own house, I'm such a idiot.'_

Sasuke mentally facepalmed at his mistake, this was the Uchiha clan and this was Fugaku Uchiha. Of course the man was paranoid enough to walk around the entire clan, heck even the entire village masking his chakra signature from his own comrades. Though Sasuke was paralyzed by the icy glare his father shot him, he literally could not move thanks to the use of the paralysis jutsu, Fugaku released Sasuke and continued to scowl at the kid_._

_"_What are you doing here Sasuke? You know all of my offices are off-limits." Fugaku seemed on the verge of exploding in rage, but bit back the harsh tone of his voice. Fugaku simply wanted to get a straight answer before he imploded from the anger he harbored.

_'Kami, this boy tests my patience.'_

Sasuke still awkwardly frozen due to the jutsu restricting the control of his nervous system, but managed to utter a genuine apology to his father. Sasuke was always aiming to please his father and the last thing he needed to do was upset him, that would set him back months in his goal to win the man's affection.

"Forgive me father."

Fugaku loss the previous feelings of irritation with the uttering of the sorrowful apology, whether Sasuke knew it or not he had a spot in Fugaku's heart. Much larger than what the child would ever know of, Sasuke was his son just as much as Itachi was. The small stinging sensation Sasuke felt receded from his body, as he felt his body ache after his release from the paralysis jutsu. Sasuke was surprised to be released from his father's hold, he was expecting some kind of punishment for his disobedience. Instead Sasuke meet the reserved onyx eyes of his father, he seemed conflicted and was trapped in deep thought until..

"Come with me."

...

_**"Fire Style : Grand Fireball Jutsu!"**_

A stream of fire hurled from the poised lips of Fugaku Uchiha, the mass of wild flames roared across the lake before they collected into a large fireball. Sasuke stared ahead in admiration of his father, though he already had the jutsu demonstrated to him in a less desirable experience. The sight of the fireball never ceased to capture Sasuke's praise, he aimed to perform the jutsu to the same capability as his father but lacked the proper chakra manipulation. After nearly twenty seconds of non-stop flame shooting from the elder Uchiha's mouth, the blaze began to recede. Fugaku turned his attention to his awe-stricken son, he resisted the urge to smile.

That was the same fascinated smile and glassy eyes from the first time Fugaku showcased the technique. The mastery of the jutsu was a rite of passage for the young shinobi of their clan, though the first attempt at teaching his son the technique left the Uchiha head severely disappointed. But not at Sasuke, Fugaku felt that any weakness in his son was a direct result of his own weakness as a father. And as clan head, the last thing he needed to be seen as is a weak leader. Fugaku placed heavy hand upon Sasuke's shoulder and patted it encouragingly.

"Your turn _son_."

Fugaku lightly pushed the jinchuriki to the edge of the dock that overlooked the lake, and backed up. Willing to give the child as much comfortability as possible to increase the chances of success, hesitant to try the technique once more Sasuke looked over his shoulder. Meeting the calm and still encouraging eyes of his father, Sasuke did not want to disappoint.

"Go on Sasuke."

Sasuke nodded in confirmation, and began the chain of hand seals as he calmly took deep breaths of air to expand his diaphragm. Fugaku nodded in approval, he hoped that the exercising of the lungs was the only factor that separated Sasuke from mastering the technique.

_'Come on Sasuke you can do this.._

_Horse - Tiger - Ram - Monkey - Boar - Horse - Tiger!'_

**_"Fire Style : Scorching Sun Explosion Jutsu!" (3)_**

Upon the formation of the last seal Sasuke felt a sudden hitch in the chakra he molded in his lungs, because of small spike in his powerful reserves he unintentionally supercharged the technique once more. The resulting flames burst forth in a wild manner, easily the range of the blaze stretched wider and further in comparison to his father's. Fugaku stood dumbfounded as he silently gawked at the mass of flames produced from his son, the unmanned flames then began to spiral and swirl until a compressed sphere was formed. The compressed flames resembled a miniature sun which grew with the continuing stream of fire coming from Sasuke, until random pillars of flame shot from the sphere making the jutsu became a rotating/exploding sun. With a final push from powerful flames the sphere soared ahead in a gyrating fashion, gliding across the river to incinerate an area of forestry on the other side of the lake. Instantly reducing the trees into piles of ash on contact, in a blinding explosion of light.

_BOOM!_

Upon recovering from the massive flash of the fiery explosion, Sasuke turned to his father, Fugaku unintentionally ignoring his son as he stared at the scorched and devastated forestry that previously stood just on the other side of the lake. Fugaku then turned his gaze upon Sasuke, as if the idea that such power could come from such a child was unimaginable.

_'This is the power of our Jinchuriki, such raw potential!'_

Sasuke's cheeks were still red from the excessive amount of air he inhaled to produce the flames, he was relieved to have finished the technique ; just a bit longer and he was sure he would have passed out from the lack of air. Sasuke caught the astonishment in his father's eyes as he observed the massive destructive power of his jutsu. Without warning Sasuke felt the a new weight press down on him, though the feeling was not painfully at all. Fugaku laid his hand upon his son's dark hair, ruffling it in affection, the action caused the child to stiffen at his touch. It had been awhile since he had any physical contact with his father unless for discipline, Sasuke accepted the love and reached his arms out for a hug.

Abruptly the comforting hand left his head, and Fugaku began to walk away leaving the young Uchiha to hug the air. Sasuke's eyes lost their content glow, as his father left him there.

"Well. Are you not coming?"

Fugaku's question grasped the child's attention, he now ceased his stride to encourage Sasuke to tag along. Quickly a smile formed upon the jinchuriki's face, immediately Sasuke broke off into a sprint to catch up to his awaiting father. Slowing down once he reached him and mimicked the man's pace, they made their way home. Fugaku threw his arm around Sasuke's shoulder and pulled him closer as they walked along the road, ignoring the stares aimed at them during their stroll.

"So son, tell me how did you come across that technique. It is unlike any fire ninjutsu I have ever seen, is it original?"

Fugaku glanced at the child by his side, but kept his eyes fixed on the area surrounding them. Left and right fellow Uchiha murmured to one another about 'the boy' and how 'unnatural such a sight was'. It took Fugaku much restraint to not attack his own kin, over the mistreatment of his youngest son. To ease his silent rage Fugaku focused on Sasuke, allowing the boys awkward explanation to block out the outside world.

"Well, I just went with the flow you know?"

Sasuke scratched his nose sheepishly as his cheeks grew red in embarrassment, never had his father praised his skill. So the opportunity was very much accepted and capitalized on, Fugaku smirked at his son's elementary process of creating a possibly A-rank jutsu.

"I do, you worked hard to develop such a ninjutsu. That's my boy."

Sasuke almost tripped after hearing his father utter that phrase, glancing upward he was pleasantly startled to see a small smile grace his father's normally stern face. It seemed so natural the way the his face formed into the pleased expression, curiously the young Uchiha pondered if this was how his father was meant to always be like.

_'He's so..different? He's being my Dad, the one I always hoped for.'_

Sasuke returned the show of kindness with his own joyful smile, the first time in many years he had smiled while within the clan walls. Funny how things were beginning to look up, right after his run in with death. This was the turn that his life needed after so many years of solitude, anger, impatience, and fear.

**_XXX-_**

**_Fire Country, 15.5 Miles from Konoha_**

Bodies littered the dirt road, the stench of blood so strong that it would invade the nostrils of any living thing to the point of repulse. Konohamaru Sarutobi sat upon a mountain pile of the unconscious mercenaries who had tried and ultimately failed to kill his uncle. Or even produce much of a challenge for the seven-year-old ninja in training. He sat with his face rested against his fist and his elbow propped up by his knee, which rested upon the head of a fallen merc. To say the least the kid was bored, though the Sarutobi pair had made quick work of the Mizuga men ; Asuma insisted they investigate the causes of such trivial attacks.

"Ok. I will ask you again.. who..sent..you!"

Asuma Sarutobi cocked back his right fist and delivered a series of swift jabs to the detained Mizuga merc, who cried out in pain of the vicious blows. Though a trained shinobi from the strongest hidden village in existence, by shinboi standards, Asuma was a pacifist who rarely got upset. But when you throw in the loss of his very last cigarette, that he had traveled for hours without rest, and that he was attacked with extreme prejudice. Asuma was far from a peace-loving man at this point, Konohamaru cringed at the crack that echoed through the area from Asuma's right hook.

_'Ohh, even I felt that one!'_

The formerly big and bad leader of the mercenaries was reduced to a whimpering peon, after a few hours of motivational techniques by way of fists. The man upon questioning revealed himself to be Hariyu Mizuga, heir of the Mizuga clan, an infamous clan of swordsman from the Water Country near the Hidden Mist Village. Hariyu was no more than seventeen years old, and it showed at this point with his tears and constant pleading to Asuma. Konohamaru was not in the least bothered to see his uncle act in such a barbaric manner, he was not hypocrite nor very naive for his age. If in his uncle's shoes he would go about prying information from the enemy in the same fashion or worse, and Konohamaru still clearly remembered the uncaring warriors who were willing to cut down a child with their sharp blades.

"Bastards!"

Konohamaru angrily kicked the head of one of the multiple mercs he sat upon, though he had to admit that this was the most fun he had since leaving the temple. Sora and himself would get into all kinds of outrageous adventures when Asuma was away on official business, leaving his nephew in the care of the reluctant monks. Konohamaru smiled to himself and let loose a low chuckle before sighing at the old times he could no longer share with his surrogate brother.

_'Good times, I'm gonna miss you big brother Sora.'_

Konohamaru suddenly snapped back to reality to meet the leveling gaze of his uncle, who had halted in his investigative methods to make sure the boy was ok. Asuma had called the child's name for help for the last minute, and Konohamaru was simply lost in his thoughts for the hundredth time since leaving the temple. Asuma signaled to the captured Mizuga that he would be right back and approached his nephew, who adopted his exaggerated mask of boredom.

"Do we really have to go to the Hidden Leaf, could some arrangement be set up for me to stay with the monks or something?"

Konohamaru raked his small fingers through his grown and vertical standing brown hair, lost in thought as his mind tried to conjure some bright idea but to no avail. He flailed his arms about in agitation, why couldn't things go his way just this once, Konohamaru met the sympathetic eyes of his uncle as he scooted over allowing the man to sit on the pile of mercs.

"Well I would have to say yes, but honestly Kono, I am not looking forward to returning to the village either. A small part of me has resented that place for years now, but it's still home. I know you don't share my feelings for the leaf. Heck you've never experienced living there, but make this just a bit easier on your uncle and give it a chance."

Asuma patted Konohamaru on the back encouragingly Konohamaru smiled in return, he silently compiled with his uncle's plead. The child sighed in defeat, but adopted his signature bouncy attitude once more before jumping of off the mountain of men. Konohamaru landed just a few feet from the binded swordsman, he glanced at the sky to observe the sun hanging among the vast collection of clouds. It was still early in the evening and they had a lot of ground to cover, with that in mind Konohamaru cracked his knuckles as he snarled at the Mizuga heir.

"Well then Asuma, we don't have all day to be fooling around with this prick. So how about I help speed up the process a bit huh?"

Konohamaru turned his head slightly to catch the mischievous grin his uncle sported which matched his own in wickedness, the two stalked toward the awaiting swordsman. Hayuri began to cry once more, this was the worst decision he had ever made in his young life.

"Alright then nephew, lend me a helping fist."

A chilling smile spread across the six year old's face, so unnatural and creepy that Hayuri's will further weakened under the powerful killing intent the two Sarutobi males radiated.

"With pleasure."

**_XXX-_**

**_Uchiha Manor_**

"Really?!"

The highly excited and trembling voice of Sasuke squeaked throughout their house, he bounced with enthusiasm thanks to his father's news. To this Fugaku suppressed a smile that threatened to crack his reserved demeanor, he simply hid his face behind his hand and shook his head in amusement at his son's reaction. His eyes glowed with a glee that Fugaku had previously thought was forgotten among the Uchiha, the boy was truly distinct from the average crowd the clan produced. Sasuke pumped an energetic fist in the air while smiling like a mad man, and singing in an childish fashion.

"I'm going be a ninja, I'm going be a ninja! I'm going be a ninja! Yeah!"

Fugaku allowed the excitable news to sink in a bit more, which allowed the child to tire himself out. Sasuke took up a seat upon a stool that allowed him to lean over a tiled counter. Fugaku sat against the kitchen counter with his head resting against a food cabinet, he leaned forward and addressed Sasuke.

"Ok. Now that the news is out of the way. And your suspected reaction is finally over, there are a few things I must tell you Sasuke."

With the somber tone that his father adopted Sasuke followed his father's example and tried to shape himself into a formal business-like appearance, he straightened his hunched posture and interlaced his fingers which he rested on his chin. Fugaku disguised his impressed look with a mask of sheer professionalism, cold and serious.

"Sasuke, as I had said earlier, you will be attending the Shinobi Academy where you will hone your skills in the multiple arts of a shinobi. And become a shining beacon among the ranks of the Uchiha, as well as the entire world of shinobi."

Fugaku spoke such drastic claims with an air of confidence, as if it was a guarantee that these claims would come to be true. Sasuke nodded with silent determination written all over his face, he forced himself not to crack under the joy he felt from such high expectations.

"Thus Sasuke, with such expectations you must not fail. You must not fail me, the clan, the village, or even yourself."

Fugaku's formerly serious face quickly shifted from that of preserved speaker, to a threatening tyrant. Sasuke completely lost the smirk that had threatened to crawl upon his face, but he felt a sudden fear thrust upon him. The threat of failure was so great, he paled at the mere thought of letting down his father once more. He had just gained the man's love and affection with the show of his strength, but now he had to progressively improve to remain in his father's heart.

_'I must not fail.. I will not.'_

"No matter what adversity you face, use the flames of our clan to burn it down and continue to blaze a path to the top. Even the mantle of Hokage is not beyond your reach."

Fugaku pondered on the thought of having a Uchiha don the Hokage's robe and hat, running the village with unmatched integrity and insuring the survival of the clan as well as the village.

_'He would be a just Hokage.'_

Quickly Fugaku returned his attention upon Sasuke, who sat seemingly frozen; the question of whether from anticipation or anxiety was the greater concern of the man. Nonetheless even if Fugaku wanted to comfort Sasuke, he needed the boy to be strong. If he sheltered and shielded Sasuke from the villagers and the clan, he would not know angst. Fugaku needed Sasuke to fear the village, to yearn for the approval of his clansmen; which would eventually lead to his complete distrust and hatred of the leaf, and his absolute loyalty to the clan above all.

_'What's the point of having a dull weapon? Hatred will transform Sasuke into the Uchiha's weapon against the leaf.'_

Fugaku reassured himself that this cold approach to parenting Sasuke for all these years was best for the survival and prosperity of the Uchiha, though he loved the child dearly. Fugaku valued the clan name more than a few crushed vessels, the needs of the greater population considerable outweighed the happiness of Sasuke Uchiha. Fugaku coached himself through these years to stay strong and strict, and had not even once in many years let up a little. This rare show of affection was just apart of his effort to reel the child further in the Uchiha's palm, and completely convert the boy's mind and exploit his abilities.

_'When this is over, you will have the joy you deserve. Forgive my sins, if I pass before my ambitions are completed.'_

"Make us proud to call you one of us Sasuke."

Fugaku turned his piercing gaze upon Sasuke who stared back unflinching under the pensive eyes, instead his eyes reflected a bit of understanding and growing approval. Sasuke nodded in confirmation of the statement, he stood from the chair and made his way toward his father. Stopping just short of a few feet from Fugaku, the child expected no more affection. The message was blunt, loud, and clear to the young Uchiha's ears.

_'Succeed or leave.'_

A bitter feeling settled in Sasuke's gut, but he disguised it with an enthusiastic smile and a signature bouncy attitude to match. Hoping to conceal his hurt feelings from his father, he felt scared but a clan to uphold and protect.

_'I'm an Uchiha, and I better start acting like one!'_

"I will become the greatest ninja this village has ever seen, you'll see father! I will make you proud."

Fugaku merely smirked in response, before a light knocking at the front door echoed throughout the nearly emptied home. Sasuke watched his father's retreating form as he followed the knocking to the source, to his displeasure he found the figure of Akiyu Uchiha.

"Lord Fugaku the elders inquire an audience with you. It is _urgent_."

Akiyu was the official errand boy of the Uchiha elders, he stood just a foot taller than Sasuke and wore a long dark poncho like cloth that reached the ground and hid his feet. Along with his thickly rimmed round glasses and dark hood, the Uchiha resembled a grim reaper of sorts. Sasuke resisted the spine-tingling chill that surged through his entire body due to the icy tone of Akiyu, as far as Sasuke knew the guy was somewhere between thirteen and sixteen. Sasuke froze when he saw the hooded messenger turn his head in his direction, acknowledging Sasuke's presence, a pale hand shot from under the dark sleeves. He waved, the action was so unexpected Sasuke could only stare blankly at Akiyu. The sudden nudging of his arm allowed Sasuke to catch his father's commanding eyes, Sasuke waved back awkwardly.

"Hey, Akiyu-san."

The dark messenger then turned back to Fugaku, Akiyu then withdrew a crisp envelope from the depths of his cloak. Fugaku accepted the envelope and nodded a thank you before Akiyu bowed and disappeared in a burst of flames. The zealous exit produced a disapproving grunt from Fugaku as he waved at the smoke that receded after, closing the door quickly, the clan head opened the letter while walking past Sasuke.

Curious Sasuke kept a nice distance between his father, far enough to avoid chastisement but close enough to hear the man's slight murmuring as he read. Without warning Fugaku turned on his heels to catch Sasuke pacing after him, Sasuke caught the flash of anger that shot through the man's face. Surprisingly Fugaku wasted no time in yelling at the boy, instead he placed a heavy hand upon Sasuke's shoulder as he crouched to his eye level.

"Listen Sasuke, I have important matters to attend. For now continue your studies and training, the beginning of your first steps as a shinobi draw near. You have two days until that day comes, use this time wisely. Alright?"

Sasuke nodded, "Yes sir."

Fugaku allowed a small smile to grace his serious face, "That's my boy, then get to it!"

Fugaku patted Sasuke's bottom encouragingly forcing the child to yelp a bit and leap forward before he broke off into a sprint for the door. Looking back only to offer his dad a thumbs up, the young Uchiha ran off. The small smile that previously blessed Fugaku's face, left with the exit of his son. He looked toward the letter that he still held in his hand, and read over it again.

_"Fugaku,_

_You disappoint us gravely, as Clan head and Police chief you are entrusted to watch over this clan. The well-being of our people is declining in the scales of power, we have determined your priorities have been disoriented as of late. The interactions with the jinchuriki are now strictly limited, until the strain of our operation has been eliminated and the revolt launched and successful. We request an audience with you Fugaku, come immediately."_

Too this news Fugaku could only rake a hand through his dark locks in frustration, "I hate those old buzzards."

...

Sasuke inclined his head toward the sky, observing the location of the sun, based on the sun's high position in the sky parallel to the Hokage Monument. Sasuke determined the day's time passed, he sighed in relief. "Pffh what a day this has been ."

Sasuke retraced today's events while he walked aimlessly to his familiar training ground, just short of 50 meters from the clan compound. Sasuke still itched with excitement from the news of attending the Shinobi Academy, he smiled to himself, the time was coming faster than he ever imagined. He would not allow the fear of failure to intimidate him even the slightest, instead he would wield it as a weapon with his mighty resolve. The thought of pressing forward and gaining greater versatile as an inspiring shinobi legend, consumed his every thought, suddenly an annoying truth reared its ugly head. Sasuke recalled the difficulty the Shadow Clone jutsu was causing him, this depressingly brought him back to the current issue in his journey.

_'The Shadow Clone technique is still causing me trouble though. I gotta master it before the Academy starts!'_

A bitter smirk played across Sasuke's baby fat face, the technique was difficult to conquer. Even with his incredible resilience for training and his die-hard mantra when it came to never giving in, Sasuke was forced to endure a barrage of failures before he finally had to call it quits. And even then he was reluctant to turn in, he only begrudgingly agreed with his body due to momentary black-outs between intervals of trial and error. Sasuke concluded this technique would be far more difficult to master than The Grand Fireball jutsu; the reason being that with that technique he had a bit of advice, and a reference to build upon when trying to master it. At this point he knew of no one with the ability to use such a technique, besides the Third, but the old man already helped him so much; Sasuke had no wish to rely on the Hokage for help all the time, like his father said, he needed to stand on his own two feet as a future shinobi and a Uchiha.

_'The old man said the Shadow Clone Technique is a forbidden ninjutsu, due to the fatal exhaustion that comes upon a user with lesser chakra. The scroll detailed that the clones are physical manifestations of the caster's chakra, divided evenly by the number of duplicates created. With such low reserves of chakra remaining if I were to summon a small army, I should be in big trouble! The technique should kill me, but it only wears me down like any other exercise or jutsu ever has.. but still I can walk and recover as if it was nothing. Strange?'_

Before Sasuke could contemplate further the anomaly that was his stamina, the terrain shifted dramatically, the feel of soft grass brushed against his ankles and the scent of sycamore trees invaded his nostrils. Producing a satisfied grin upon the Uchiha's feature, his formerly puzzled features softened to a degree of blissfully peace. Sasuke felt like a total blockhead, so lost in his thoughts that he failed to notice he was already subconsciously taking the right path; Sasuke scratched his dark duck-butt hair in confusion with a bit of admirement.

_'Amazing what the human brain is capable of..'_

Sasuke pushed the strange incident to the back of his mind, quickly he set up his training ground. Turning his sights on a healthy and sturdy tree , it waved with the wind at the approaching Uchiha, at the bottom of the tree a sizable hole was there. Sticking his hand inside he wriggled around abit before he returned with a small set of targets, each about the size of a textbook. Well accustomed to his training regiment, he scattered the targets among the training ground with ease. Once finished he went over the list of locations.

"Ok one by the boulder_..", _Sasuke pointed to a propped up target against a boulder, a low target that could be hard to strike if the aim was just a little off course and hit the ground.

He turned his shoulder to the left and caught the sight of two more targets_, 'Two more by the tree, one surrounded by a protective clan of branches and the other dangling from a lone branch but slightly obscured by the leaves. Tricky shot.'_

Sasuke pointed out the rest with a precise care for possible trajectories to experiment with_, 'One here, another there, two over there, and the last one is way up there..'_

Sasuke pointed to a target that he somehow managed to stand completely on one of its corners on the peak of a tree, an impressive feat. The small wood-framed target sheet sustained balance, this elicited a prideful smirk to spread across his features.

"Alright time to get this started."

Sasuke held eight kunai knives between the spaces of his knuckles. Four kunai per hand each with a premeditated target, he stood center of the training ground for a bit longer than what most children his age would dare to endure. A pleasant breeze swept across the field blowing the boy's hair to the right, halting just as Sasuke took action. With the slightest bending of his knees he soared to an impressive height of at least 15 feet, twirling in midair as a show of his acrobatic ability. His head and feet switched positions forcing him to take on a nose dive back to the grass, twirling like a drill he hurled the majority of the kunai at the intended targets.

The projectiles rocketed from his hand with explosive power and even greater speed: the target near the rock was hurled back by the impact of the driven kunai, the protective clan of branches retreated from the piercing ability of Sasuke's other kunai and reached the destination. While a following kunai in the same vicinity rammed through the leaves to hit its target.

All the while Sasuke fell toward the awaiting ground, keeping track of the nearly inaudible thuds that each kunai induced upon success.

_'One, two, three, four, five, six..'_

Sasuke fluidly transitioned his feet toward the incoming ground with expert ease_, 'Seven!..'_

The young Uchiha, softened his landing by tucking his knees into his chest , rolling upon the grass until he come upon his feet into a crouch. Fluently Sasuke slapped his empty palm to the ground, swung his waist, and shifted all his weight into a twirling horizontal handspin. From his hand he released the final kunai , with a greater sense of duty to strike the target. This after all was his greatest challenge, the far of thud of yet another kunai alerted Sasuke to his success. Pressing off his single hand that sustained his weight, he leaped from his former position. His eyes took notice of the falling target with a kunai lodged in it , this was proof enough he was adept with weaponry.

"Eight!"

Sasuke dusted off his white shorts and adjusted his black long-sleeved shirt, that was oddly devoid of the Uchiha insignia. He grinned like a mad men the entire time, Sasuke observed his handiwork. Careful to analyze each point of impact, the results were very pleasing. He had the pleasure of detaching every kunai he threw from the bullseye of each target he set up, a proud grin plastered across the kid's face.

"Hell yeah, I rock!"

Sasuke threw an enthusiastic fist toward the sky with renewed vigor in his attitude, he may have struggled with ninjutsu and controlling his immense chakra reserves. But no matter what his skill with weaponry was nothing short of natural talent, and thanks to hours of honing that talent, it was a mastered art. Sasuke doubted he would find another child his age that could match his skill, no one was even close to topping Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke scratched his head sheepishly as he remembered all the times he was utterly humiliated by his brother during sparring, and his defeat at the hands of Neji Hyuuga_._

_'Ok maybe no one can match me when it comes to projectile accuracy.'_

To this thought Sasuke was reminded of his struggle to master the Shadow Clone Technique, but his success in the other half of training renewed his spirit and set ablaze his desire to have a go with the technique. Determination clearly evident throughout his being, he clenched his fist and declared boldly to world.

"I will master this jutsu!"

Sasuke though did not expect to hear a reply echo from the forest, which caused the boy to falter upon his formation of the correct hand seals.

"You know, you shouldn't talk to yourself aloud. People will start to believe you're a loon."

The icy voice that erupted from nowhere was not welcomed pleasantly as Sasuke quickly grabbed a kunai and hurled it in the general direction of the speaker. Sasuke became tense when he did not pick up on the inaudible thud of a well-aimed kunai. Instead a cloaked figure rose from the shadows of the forest, holding the kunai that the child threw as if it was nuisance he wanted to be rid of.

"Here you go."

The stranger tossed the weapon to Sasuke, who did not bother to catch it, for he held a spare kunai behind his back as insurance to defend himself if needed. As far as he knew no ever came to this training ground because of its close proximity to the Uchiha clan, and no Uchiha would rather come here than train in the clan's private dojos. And no one mysteriously walks around the village with a dark cloak obscuring their features, though a sudden thought protruded past the boy's paranoia to create a new thought.

_'Well except for.. of course.. but it couldn't be. Right?'_

Sasuke hesitantly looked upon the cloaked stranger before taking a chance, "Akiyu?"

To the name the cloaked figure raised its head revealing a pair of dark thickly framed round glasses, and a pale hand shot from the cloak, waving in an awkward but friendly way.

"Hello Sasuke-san, forgive me if I startled you!" Akiyu bowed before the surprised eight year old, which was an odd gesture since he looked like a shadow bending over.

In response to the hooded figure's exaggerated and respectful apology, Sasuke blushed abit while scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. Sasuke tried to convince Akiyu that the formalities were completely unnecessary, he waved at the hooded Uchiha with a desperate tone in his voice.

"Akiyu that's totally not needed, It's cool if you just call me Sasuke."

Akiyu caught the slightly annoyed edge in the child's voice, but could see the sincere motives behind the child's brash outburst. Sasuke smiled and offered his hand, which Akiyu accepted and shook with a large and very strong hand. Sasuke had to fight back a yelp from emerging, he did not expect Akiyu to be that strong. Considering the strength behind the mysterious figure of Akiyu, Sasuke voiced his curiosity to the strange guy.

"Hey Akiyu how old are you? It's kinda hard to tell with you walking around like a cloaked demon and all. You know you look quite suspicious in that outfit, you should try some brighter colors. Why wear all of that stuff anyway, it can't be comfortable." Sasuke gestured to the dark garment that hid away every inch of the man's appearance. The only thing that was visible to the outside world was the dark shades that even hid Akiyu's eyes. Akiyu seemed to be caught of guard by the question, though this was only evident due to the sound of him choking on his spit.

"Awwah?"

Akiyu recovered from the initial shock, and inhaled a calming breath of air before speaking. "Well, it's a way of protecting myself." Akiyu turned his hooded face toward the child as they took a seat upon the soft grass, the sun reflected across his dark shades nearly blinding the child.

"And what's up with the glasses Akiyu? You're a Uchiha, why would you ever need glasses?" Sasuke pestered Akiyu with an annoyingly curious tone in his high voice. At the mention of his glasses Akiyu turned away from the pensive eyes of Sasuke, causing Sasuke's interest to falter as he noticed the topic was probably taboo. Nonetheless Akiyu spoke to Sasuke with his low and chilling voice, which still unnerved Sasuke as he listened.

"Well, I not a full blood Uchiha. In their eye's I am a mutt, and as for my glasses I do need them but not to see."

Sasuke was taken by surprise at the cryptic way that Akiyu presented himself, he could sense an ominous undertone to Akiyu's words. He recalled the previous words of Akiyu, "What do you mean by protecting yourself? Who do you have to defend yourself from?"

Akiyu sighed in response, though his face was obscured by his cloak; Sasuke had a feeling that his face must have adopted an expression of reluctance. To Sasuke's absolute shock, pale hands reached for the hood and slowly reared the material back. Revealing a trail of dull black hair with a few streaks of gray, and skin sickly pale and pasty. Sasuke barely had moments to register Akiyu's features, before Akiyu withdrew the shades from his eyes.

"..."

Sasuke sat frozen when he meet the horrendously scarred and corrosive layers of flesh that replaced where Akiyu's eyes should have been. Speechless and horrified at such gruesome features Sasuke could not voice his concerns, Akiyu sat with a stoic expression, he expected this kind of reaction.

"...I hide myself so this kind of thing never happens again..."

Sasuke barely about to think properly while faced with such a sore sight, stuttered a bit, "W-what? Who? Why would-"

Akiyu raised a lone finger, signaling for the younger Uchiha to silence himself. "Dear Sasuke to understand why I hide myself and how such a handicap has befallen me. Allow me to share with you the events of a certain day that changed my life forever, I hope to only educate you."

...

-(Flashback)-

"Akiyu! you freak go back to your whore of a mother."

An angry dark-haired Uchiha teen yelled while begin supported by a group of chunin. Abruptly the Uchiha brought his fist across Akiyu's cheek, knocking the boy on his back. Quickly the surrounding Uchiha chunin joined in the action and began to viciously stomp and punch the downed boy, all the while the inhabitants of the Uchiha clan purposely ignored the cruel act being permitted. And continued on with their day to day activities, while the boy was beat in the middle of the street like a dog.

"You really believed you were going to be a shinobi! Huh?!"

The pack leader signaled the others to cease their attacks, allowing him to grab Akiyu by the collar and look him in his eyes. Quickly the teen withdrew a kunai and held it against Akiyu's throat, the child froze with fear while he held back the tears that threatened to burst forth. He could not fathom how cruel his supposed clansmen could be to one of their own, all he wanted to do was make everyone proud and gain their praise.

_'...Why..why do they hate me?..why do they stand by as this happens?..why.. why is my life a living nightmare?...'_

Akiyu felt the warmness of fresh tears spill across his cheeks as his vision became blurry due to the overflow, his grief such a burden and his pain so immense he tried to speak. Due to the severity of the beating he suffered, he barely managed a wheeze.

"Why?"

To this question the group of chunin began a heartless roar of laughter, the leader of the group flashed his Sharingan emitting a wave of killing intent while he grabbed Akiyu by his dark/gray hair shooting a chilling gaze his way.

"Why? Because you're trash, because you're impure, you're an embarrassment to my clan, and you're unworthy of the Uchiha name! Every moment you live the Uchiha clan further descends in a pit of humiliation and I can stand it no more!"

The speed in which the following events happened were untraceable to the untrained eye, with rage driving his actions the chunin slashed mercilessly with his kunai. The deadly point pierced tender flesh and curved a horizontal path from the left to right, effectively destroying the unique eyes of the known Uchiha-Hyuuga child. In a spectacular yet gory show of skill blood splashed across the dirt road and the surrounding bystanders, while a cradled Akiyu bleed profusely as he released a unhindered scream of agony.

"Gawwwwh!"

Akiyu's cries were silenced once more as the teen viciously clocked the Uchiha-Hyuuga hybrid in his temple with the blunt end of his kunai, though silenced the boy was still conscious but severely dazed by the loss of his sight. On top of that the damaging blow to his head made everything a wavy world of darkness and nausea. Akiyu felt spasms of pain erupt all over his vulnerable body, now he was further defenseless and was left tossing in his world of darkness unable to see his attackers stomp and punch him with renewed spirit. Fear being the only viable emotion that consumed Akiyu's thoughts at the moment, he held in his cries of pain, no longer did he have the strength to waste on them.

_'I am going to die, this is it.'_

"Enough Iyu."

A silent yet strong voice pierced and captured the attention of one of the chunin, who then alerted the others to the newcomer's arrival. A boy about the same age as Akiyu stood just a few meters from the group of chunin, the sun now starting to set gave the boy a celestial-like appearance. The golden rays of the setting sun blazed behind him while his Sharingan glowed with silent intimidation.

"Tche! Get out of here kid before we take care of you too." Iyu turned his back and delivered a swift kick to Akiyu who continued to leak blood like a broken faucet, and laid in a small puddle of his own blood.

"I warned you Iyu.." The child's voice adopted a much deeper pitch and echoed through the area.

Iyu turned back to find his comrades were all laid out in contorted figures, spazzing with foam flowing from their mouths. From there everything turned into a nightmare, the sky blackened to the point of non-existence as the world grew startlingly chilly. Iyu turned back to Akiyu, only to find the body of a crumbling corpse. It decayed into dust then began to blow with a sudden gust of wind, whirling around Iyu, who tried to disperse the annoying dust cloud by waving about with his hands.

"Who the hell are you?", Iyu hollered out to the dark world; A crow emerged from the shadows and transformed into a boy. It was a dark-haired Sharingan wielding child, who held his dark locks in a ponytail and wore dark pants and shirt under his chunin vest.

"Itachi-san?!", Iyu spoke the name in an awkward tone of fear and astonishment.

"You..."

Itachi pointed a lone small finger toward the older chunin who seemed to be frozen with fear, "...are a disgrace to the village.."

Itachi raised his hands and flames shot forth from the ground, pillars of flame sweltered and boomed to unnatural temperatures of heat. Iyu frightened by the sudden display of power, he futilely backed away from the flames in the seemingly empty world. Iyu failed to notice the sound of air passing through rushing steel as thick chains wrapped around his throat, locking on tightly and yanking him down.

"..and trash to the Uchiha name." More thick chains began to capture his limbs and bind tightly to his body before an invisible force lifted him into the air. Iyu was suddenly slammed upon a brick wall where he hung suspended a few meters off the ground due to the chains.

The sweltering flames began to lick at his clothing before quickly spreading up his body like a living fungus, lighting the chunin in scorching flames hotter than the sun. Iyu screamed Itachi's name, he begged for mercy, he hollered in sheer agony of such torture. Itachi waltzed through the flames as if he was invulnerable, and leaped forward as a pair of large dark wings burst from his back.

"You do not deserve my mercy, tell me..", Itachi's black wings flapped rhythmically allowing him to sustain the same altitude at which Iyu was chained while the bright red flames roared all around them and Iyu screamed the whole time for it to end.

"Did you offer mercy to the one who you considered trash. No, you tried to swipe away his existence because in your mind he tarnished the Uchiha name." Itachi began to calmly flutter backwards before he completely transformed into a gigantic crow. His Sharingan eyes illuminated the dark world with their eerie glow, which further elicited fear in Iyu.

"Well allow me to shoulder that burden for you, and wipe away this trash." The gigantic crow swooped down upon Iyu, and soared down, making a direct beeline to pierce the chunin with its oversized sharp beak.

"Gawh!" Blood slowly slid down the beak of the crow as it effectively rested in the open rupture of human flesh. The demon delibreately and slowly feasted upon Iyu's intestines, and ravished the remaining organs. All the while the Uchiha screamed from the intense burning of his skin along with the torture, his pain was momentarily numbed as his skin horrendously grew back warped in appearance. Allowing the greedy raven to feast once more on the new organs of the chained Uchiha, the pain was everlasting and wasn't due to end anytime soon.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

...

Itachi stood apathetically as he adjusted the weight of the bleeding Akiyu, who had long ago passed out from the major blood loss. Deactivating his Sharingan he allowed the watchful eyes of bystanders to follow his retreating form, as he was sure they were all disturbed by his show of ruthless justice. Iyu Uchiha laid in a puddle of his own blood as he foamed at the mouth with blood flowing from his eyes, nose, and ears ; Iyu's band of crusaders panicked as they tried to snap their leader from the powerful genjutsu that imprisoned his mind.

"Iyu-san! Wake up, please don't die!"

...

His brows furrowed as he stirred himself into a sitting position, though fully awake, he sat in complete darkness. Instantly Akiyu grasped his abdomen as a wave of pain suddenly hit him like a bag of bricks, he coughed harshly as he felt the metallic taste of blood hitch in his throat. Regaining his composure, memories of the beating he suffered at the hands of Iyu reminded him of why he sat in total darkness. Hesitantly he reached for his face feeling the soft touch of what he believed to be bandages, he tried to pull at them before a hand halted his movements.

"Don't." A gentle yet assertive voice told him as he felt a strong grip conceal his movements. The hand retreated once Akiyu put his hands down on what he believed to be a bed. Still quiet shaken up by the near-death experience, and the loss of his sight, Akiyu could not hide the vulnerability that amplified his weakness as he spoke. "W-where am I?"

To Akiyu's surprise the voice replied, yet the person was next to useless as they spoke in riddles. "Ask not what you are capable of understanding through mere effort." The sage like tone that the speaker adopted caused the half-Uchiha to frown, what the hell was that suppose to mean. If he could see where he was, Akiyu would not bother asking him.

"Never mind." Akiyu sighed in defeat, but was sorely surprised by a stinging slap across his face. Akiyu instinctively cradled the abused flesh and glared in what he believed to be the general direction of the attacker. "What the hell?!"

Akiyu fueled by his anger, nearly abandoned his previous feelings of fear and focused his resentment for his injuries toward the mysterious speaker. "Why did you smack me?!"

A moment passed between responses allowing an awkward moment of silence before the voice returned impassive in tone, "Because, you needed it."

Akiyu began to grit his teeth at the so-called justified reason why some stranger had smacked him, and cursed the voice for its cryptic messages. Suddenly Akiyu was victim to another vicious smack, the resounding impact of flesh upon flesh echoed throughout the room. Akiyu was yet again dizzy as he felt his brain do acrobatics while trying to reconcile the damage, he could discern wavelengths in the depths of the dark world. Allowing Akiyu to catch sight of figures through a bright series of flashes that echoed through his mind.

"A-wha?"

Akiyu held his head to ease the swaying waves his brain and eye receptors were producing, a frown graced his features as the waves began to cease. As the pain began to subside, the pestering voice spoke once more to the blind boy. "You are adjusting slowly. I must speed things along."

The statement was spoken with calculative insight laced throughout its entirety, Akiyu failed to decipher the meaning behind the voice's analysis of his 'progress'. Though he had to wonder exactly what was being measured, what did this person expect from him. "Stop talking to yourself aloud, and tell me what you want from me!"

Akiyu growled as he balled his fist, but was surprised when he took hold of the starchy and uncomfortable material of sheets. Before he could further venture to discover where he was the voice interrupted him again, "What I want is what you need."

A surprisingly strong punch found its way into Akiyu's healing jawbone, producing a trail of blood to rush from his mouth and spray out into the unknown. Yet it was not unknown, as the pain barely registered due to his hypersensitive ears catching the inaudible splash of blood hitting the floor. And it happened again, the haze attacked his brain, the waves invaded his undisturbed world of darkness. This time he took notice of the pattern which he traced with his senses, reaching past the dark world he was stuck in to notice the flashes revealing figure surrounding him.

_'Wha- I saw it, it was just a moment's time but I saw it all.'_

"Do you see now Akiyu? Do you see without sight?" The voice quizzed Akiyu while he was still trying to balance the loss of his sight with his developing remaining senses, he shook his side slowly in confirmation.

"I saw some things.." He then stretched his arms out and touched similar poles of metal, and tested a theory, flicking the metal he allowed the resounding ting to alter his artificial vision composed of his brain working with his remaining senses. The flashes illuminated the room in smaller ripples, allowing him to focus and catch nearly every detail.

"I'm in the Konohagakure Medical Center.."

"Correct"

"There is a stack of clothes in the corner that are covered with blood, which belongs to me.."

"Correct"

"There is full bathroom with a shower, sink, etc just a three meters from the door."

"Which is?..."

"Which is exactly five meters to the right of the bed that I'm resting in."

"Impressive. You gained a firm footing on your compensating senses, and are nearly prepared to return your life to normalcy."

To this Akiyu scoffed, what life was there left for him after such events that occurred. His own clansmen who he aimed to bring respect and honor to, shunned him. They forsake him and sentenced him to death by public execution, he allowed a bitter smirk to play upon his formerly considered handsome face.

"What the hell were you watching Itachi? That you believe my life with the Uchiha will prosper after they left me to the wolves!" Akiyu growled at the chunin, his brain now working nearly in sync to compensate for the loss sense allowed Akiyu to identify the voice as his former classmate and companion.

Itachi sat against the wall cooly throwing an apathetic yet bordering on sympathetic gaze to his former classmate, who Itachi left after he quickly gained recognition and became a genin, and then a chunin in little time. Itachi rarely dwelled on the past, for he never allowed mistakes to trip him up. But many of nights after a day of long training and he was left to his thoughts, they would lead him to wonder about the Uchiha-Hyuuga child. Itachi knew the boy as the black sheep of the Uchiha, they were total opposites. Itachi was the clan's crown jewel and hope for supremacy in the village. While Akiyu's existence only aroused feelings of disappointment in one another, for Akiyu's mother was rumored to be a harlot who sought refugee in the arms of a lower branch Hyuuga.

"Why? That it the question that haunts me with everyday I have endured their hatred.." Itachi took notice of the rage that flowed through Akiyu with elementary ease, he needed to vent and Itachi would be there for him. That was the least he could do after nearly four years of no contact.

"All because of my lowly birth! My mother a free-spirited woman and my father a selfless prick looking for a good time, brought a child of rival heritages into the world. I-I didn't ask for any of t-this." Akiyu's voice began to crack he succumbed to the despair which he fought for many years to bury in the depths of his heart. Itachi noted that if it were not for the absence of his eyes, Akiyu would likely be releasing streams of angst-filled tears.

Yet Akiyu could not longer experience the warm feel of tears, whether for joy or sorrow, but would still feel all the pains that would accompany a person during weeping. Itachi sat against the wall in thought while the sound of Akiyu's weeping drowned out all noise and even bothered his train of thought, seemingly fed up with Akiyu. Itachi stalked toward the hospitalized ten-year old, he smoothly withdrew a kunai from his holster, and slammed it upon the stand beside the bed.

"If you are going to complain and lay in your self-pity, then here take this and end your suffering." Itachi slid open the window beside the hospital bed, and stepped upon the sill in preparation to depart from Akiyu's presence. "Or you can meet me at training field 126, just outside of the compound and continue to live for something..."

"Live for more than just the past my friend." And with that Itachi leaped from the windowsill, leaving Akiyu to his thoughts. He focused on the tool beside the bed and reached for it, taking in its detail with his new fifth sense. And with rage shadowing his mind once more he tossed the weapon to the ground, ignoring the flashes that danced through his dark world as the metal clattered upon the floor.

"No more."

-(End Flashback)-

Sasuke sat staring intensely as he listened to Akiyu's disturbing tale, now he looked upon the 'messenger boy' with greater respect and understanding. Sasuke suppressed his desire to pester Akiyu further on what had happened, he had no knowledge of Itachi being Akiyu's former pal. Sasuke shuddered as he thought of the prejudice Akiyu was forced to endure, though he could only partially relate. Since he did not actively pursue the attention of the clan as Akiyu did, it frightened him to know such hate existed and was disturbed among many others besides himself. Yet it was a comfort as well to know he was not alone, others lived with similar pain.

"Akiyu-san..Why are you serving them?" Sasuke's face contorted into a mix of sorrow and anger, a result of his feelings toward the ignorance of the village. Akiyu did not hesitate even the slightest. The question was clear, blunt, and left nothing to be misinterpreted. "You would not understand. You can not comprehen-"

"Bull!"

Sasuke leaped to his feet as he stared defiantly at the older teen, he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as his anger boiled over. "And don't tell me I'm too young to understand, you have no idea what I put up with!.."

Akiyu remained silent as he allowed Sasuke to voice his anger, "A village that shuns my existence, a clan that treats me as an outsider, a father that keeps me at arm's length, and a brother who I am always overshadowed by.."

Akiyu sat quietly as he soaked in the heart-wrenching revelation that Sasuke recklessly shared with him. Sasuke began to tumble over his words, Akiyu took notice of the sparkling glare his eyes reflected. Akiyu watched as a lone tear shed and sled down the pale cheeks of the eight year old boy, "The loneliness is unbearable, you feel so empty and without purpose that you accept any sort of attention. Right?"

Akiyu stated, total accurate in his assumption of Sasuke's sorrow.

Sasuke was slightly startled when he felt warm hands grab hold of his shoulders, and flinched at the touch as Akiyu proceeded to wipe away his tears. Sasuke nodded in response for the analysis was not only correct but the story of his life, all he wanted was some kind of attention whether it was from an angry store vender or a uninterested Itachi. Any acknowledgement was enough, just some closure to make him forget about the isolation he felt burdened with. Even for just a moment.

"I am sorry Sasuke-kun, you do understand my pain. This world can be host to untold numbers of people like us, forsaken by our neighbors and blood. But that doesn't mean we have to forsake each other, we can block out their world of false brotherhood."

Akiyu placed his hand upon Sasuke's cheek as he kneeled on one knee, caressing it softly as he tried his best to soothe the younger boy's years of sorrow. Akiyu would not allow himself to falter at the opportunity to change the life of someone like him, he owed it to himself. It seemed as though Itachi had abandoned both of his brothers as he became a recognized name in Konoha.

"You do not need anyone else Sasuke; I will be your family, your friend, your _brother_. Together we don't need the Uchiha, we will not need the villagers... All we need is each other."

"Just us?" Sasuke tried to keep himself grounded to reality, as tempting as having someone to confide in and a 'true' brother in understanding. Sasuke found his body acting solely on instinct, he backpaddled a few feet away from the kneeling blind teen. "I am sorry Akiyu but I can't turn my back on my friends.. I am happy to finally find someone who can understand me even when I have trouble sorting myself out."

Sasuke began to shake his head profoundly, "But I just can't turn my back on the few people who believe in me." Sasuke spoke with lesser confidence and swagger in his tone as he hated the idea of turning someone away, especially Akiyu after finding comfort in one another. Akiyu began to laugh, and laughed in such a way that it sent a shiver through Sasuke as the very temperature in the area dropped.

"You fool..you believe that those 'few' people really care. What do they know about people like us, children born into hatred! We can't trust them, because as soon as we let our guards down just the slightest..they'll make us regret it!"

Sasuke eagerly disagreed, shaking a disapproving finger at Akiyu. "No Akiyu! There are people out there who are willing to accept us as we are. That won't judge us because of silly superstitions or other dumb beliefs. We just have to open ourselves up to the world, and stay open until we find those people."

Sasuke placed his right hand over his heart, "I've found people who truly care for me!" Sasuke yelled defiantly as he hoped to sway Akiyu's set ideals. Akiyu frowned as he clenched and released his fist to claim his growing rage, "You're too young to see it now, but I will show you the light!"

Akiyu lunged with unforeseen speed, Sasuke barely had time to move. A single pale hand shot forth and took hold of Sasuke's throat, and fluently tightened the grip while hoisting the eight year old off his feet. Sasuke dangled a few feet above Akiyu's head, the child kicked and squirmed to break the grip but only caused the teen to apply greater force.

"You ungrateful brat. I was willing to give you everything, do anything to see you happy. But no matter what it just isn't good enough, even if we are the same. I'm still lower than you, this is unacceptable!" Akiyu sneered while his eyeless face scrunched into a scowl. Sasuke began to lose consciousness while he tried to reason with the suddenly threatening Uchiha-Hyuuga teenager, "A-Akiyu.. don't.. don't do this.."

Dark spots began to litter Sasuke's vision as he stared into the twisted face of Akiyu, a fallen brother. _'If only we had found one another before you fall this far into the pit.. if only.' _Sasuke had fallen limp in Akiyu's life-siphoning hold, Akiyu finally took notice of the lack of fight in Sasuke and lost his smile of dark pleasure. Though before he could release his stranglehold a sudden flash in his mind's eye alerted him to danger, nonetheless a bit late as Akiyu took the full brunt of a hook to his stomach. Launching the blind teen into the air, where he took a few moments to recover and flip in mid-air before landing semi-gracefully.

"Itachi."

Akiyu nursed the area the anbu had struck at, but stared with his mind's eye at the fuming Uchiha who cradled his younger brother's frail form to his bosom. Itachi kneeled in the grass, watching intensely as the faint rising of Sasuke's chest brought small comfort to the teen's fears. Looking over his shoulder Itachi sent a Sharingan death glare at his former companion, Akiyu in turn placed his glasses back on and rested his hood over his features. "Itachi-kun, you look well.."

Akiyu smiled underneath his dark hood and stifled a bitter laugh, "Well as good as a duty-driven drone can be."

Akiyu did nothing to withhold the resentment that had brewed inside of him for years since that day at the hospital, his tone grew in volume as he ranted to the usually impassive Itachi. He only half-listened to Akiyu's greeting, instead Itachi kept a vigilante eye out encase Akiyu tried something while the other watched out for Sasuke.

Itachi allowed his sympathetic side to surface toward Akiyu, but only for the sake of the past friendship the two once had. "I have nothing to say to you Akiyu, but if you ever come near _my brother_ again_.."_

Itachi's guardian-like figure began to melt and the sound of flapping accompanied with cawing invaded Akiyu's mind, "I will finish what Iyu could not, those years ago!" Itachi whispered harshly as the wind whistled with his departure in a company of ravens.

Akiyu stood alone in the training field now, the silence revealed to his mind's eye the chirping of birds and the light pattering of water droplets upon the lake. Akiyu sighed at the unforeseen turn of events, that went completely south of his original intentions. Grief slowly creeped into his mind and heart as he recalled the feel of Sasuke's tender flesh between his iron grasp.

_'Forgive me Sasuke-san, I only wanted to warn you..'_

Akiyu began his slow waltz through the soft and ankle reaching grass, while ignoring the information his senses processed to create a clear picture of his surroundings. Akiyu walked aimlessly, he had next to nothing to live for now. He hoped to find new purpose with the chance to 'save' someone like him from the darkness of their own pain, before it was too late.

_'Remain strong my brother in suffering, the journey has barely approached the storm.'_

**_XXX-_**

**_Uchiha Compound, 25 M from Manor_**

Itachi Uchiha walked with a calm demeanor radiating to those who stared at the Uchiha élite, he noticed the less than subtle looks he received while he piggy-backed Sasuke back home. He remained unconscious as they made their way from the training field back home, Itachi sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in pensive way. His thoughts drifted to the dark and gray-haired young man who he had no contact with since the fateful day of destiny, sadly even with Itachi's intervention in Akiyu's crumbling state at the time. Nothing changed. Itachi feigned that whatever Akiyu did was his decision and it did not affect him, yet those years of devotion to his shinobi career cost him dearly.

Itachi took notice of the light breathing that lightly tickled his neck while Sasuke slumbered, he promised himself he would protect the boy no matter what he was faced with. The same was established years ago when he solidified his bond with Akiyu back before his ascension, yet now he found himself an anbu operative at thirteen but two of his three valued bonds were strained to the point of destruction.

_'With all my talent.. all my famed accomplishments.. I could not save my best friend..'_

"But I will preserve this village and Sasuke to my last breath."

The sun beat down intensely upon the village as the orb of sunrays peeked through the parted clouds, while a pair of bluejays flew playfully overhead. Itachi smiled to himself at the strange beauty of nature, now the weight of Sasuke shifted upon his back as he squirmed awake. A light yawn escaped the younger Uchiha's mouth as he stretched his arms out, Itachi counted the seconds it took for Sasuke to adjust and register his surrounding. Itachi discreetly shook his head in light disappointment of Sasuke's delayed reaction, he made a mental note to start training with Sasuke again.

"Umm Itachi? Why are you carrying me?"

Sasuke was still groggy and was slowly recalling the events that lead to him being piggy-backed through the compound, immediately upon noticing the questioning eyes of the bystanders he buried his face in Itachi's back. Sasuke flushed in embarrassment at being caught in public with his brother in such a way, apparently Itachi was a mind reader as well as a prodigal shinobi.

"Are you uncomfortable with me carrying you home, if you are ready to walk then go ahead."

Sasuke picked up on the light teasing tone his brother had taken up as they strided through the streets past shops and food-stalls, though to the average bystander Itachi was as stoic as ever. Yet Sasuke was able to discern his elder sibling's mood due to years of experience dealing with the strange teen, but Sasuke considered the last time he had such brotherly moments with the stoic Uchiha. So in response Sasuke simply wrapped his arms around his brother's neck reassuringly, and rested his chin upon Itachi's shoulder.

"Nah, I'm pretty comfy right here!" Sasuke ignored the sigh that Itachi released in reponse to the rowdy behavior of his younger brother, but smiled as he could not imagine living his life without Sasuke.

_'I only have him and the leaf to live for. There's no doubt I'll have to take precautions when carrying out my orders, I don't desire to scar the two in the process.'_

Sasuke noticed the sudden slump of Itachi's shoulders as the dark-haired teen looked transfixed in deep thought, why did the guy have to be so serious all the time. Despite all the stress and duty the thirteen year old was subjected to, Sasuke still admired every aspect that formed Itachi into the honorable shinobi he was today. Sasuke dreamed to be able to surpass Itachi and become the greatest hero the leaf ever produced, but realistically he hoped to at least become half as skilled as Itachi.

"Hey big brother you feelin' ok, you're lookin' a bit paler than usual?"

Sasuke cupped his small hand over Itachi's bare forehead as he checked for an abnormal temperature, though to no avail, Itachi was in peak condition and remained healthy in every way thinkable. Itachi ignored the question and simply stared ahead at the nearing front deck of their home, stretching his chakra network he noted the absence of his father. Perfect, Itachi needed anytime he could have with his brother before things changed.

Itachi sat upon the smooth wood deck, Sasuke retreated from his back and plopped beside Itachi while grinning earnestly. Itachi remained silent while contemplating how to approach Sasuke, he still had not explained his outburst back at the training field just earlier that week. "Hey Itachi, I wanted to let you know I appreciate you."

Itachi snapped his head to the younger boy who stared at the ground before them, Sasuke's shaggy dark locks obscured his face as he spoke. Luckily Itachi did not have to worry about Sasuke noticing the flash of confusion evident upon his normally calm face. "These past few days have being hectic! I had a run in with a spy, met and befriend two heiress, fought a Hyuuga prick, hospitalized for the first time, created a dangerous new jutsu, and.." Sasuke began to squeak with excitement as he recalled the eventful week that was nearly at its end.

Noticing the questioning gaze of his brother, Sasuke paused and inhaled a calming breath of air and finally sighed. "But the point is, the one thing that constantly stayed in my mind was the disappointment I had caused you. I talked to father today and he further helped me realize your anger, though it took a while for me to understand.."

Sasuke scratched back of his head sheepishly as he smiled with pink-tinted cheeks, "Well you two only wants what's best for me, and would do anything to assure I will be strong for whatever comes my way..."

Itachi so transfixed by the wise and accurate words of his brother, he barely had time to react when Sasuke lunged at him. Effectively capturing the elder shinobi in a loving embrace, Itachi's eyes widen a bit as he listened further to the emotional child.

"I love you guys for it! For everything you two have done for my well-being."

Itachi was glad no one was around to witness this moment of weakness in himself, Sasuke though much weaker and less skilled than Itachi, did have an edge over him. Sasuke had a spot in his heart so valued that nothing could replace him, Itachi fought back the light tear droplets that dared to spill forth. He returned the embrace with matched affection and care, which further enhanced the moment's memorabilia.

_'I will always remember this time, a shame we can never have more.'_

Itachi sniffled a bit as he lightly pushed Sasuke away, allowing him to return to his seat upon the deck. Itachi silently thanked the heavens that Sasuke hadn't noticed his near breakdown into tears, the prodigy still had a reputation to keep up in his brother's eyes and would not allow his image to be dampened.

"It seems this weeks events have brought great change to you little brother, you are maturing into a fine young man. And have potential greater than I, to become an extraordinary shinobi one day. Don't allow anyone or hanything to ever make you change who you are." Itachi smiled at Sasuke, who in turn welcomed a cheek-straining grin to grace his features.

Sasuke felt on top of the world, everything was going his way. Nothing was wrong anymore, his father did love him, his brother believed in him, he had friends who cared about him and he grew stronger with each passing day! Sasuke sat back against the deck while propped up by his hands and stared lovingly at the vast blue sky, much like the unhindered sun, Sasuke felt as a powerful force finally rising over the darkness that surrounded him for years.

Sasuke released a low whistle while he sat relaxed against the cool deck, absolutely rolling in his happiness. "Boy, what a week -huh?"

The young Uchiha failed to notice the group of shinobi that seemed to appear before the pair suddenly from thin air, well at least _he_ failed to notice. Sasuke looked beside himself to notice that Itachi returned to his stoic mask in the company of the elder Uchiha, Itachi wasn't surprised a bit. Sasuke noticed among the man a few recognizable faces, men that worked closely with his father and stopped by on a few occasions. He did a headcount.

_'Inabi Uchiha..'_, Inabi had shoulder length black hair and dark eyes. He wore the standard attire of the Uchiha clan which consisted of a dark, long-sleeved, high-collared shirt that bore the Uchiha crest with matching pants.

_'Yashiro Uchiha...'_, Yashiro had ash-colored hair and squinted eyes which he only opened when he activated his Sharingan. Yashiro wore a short-sleeved, high-collared purple shirt that bore the Uchiha crest on the back along with a pair of brown pants. He also wore a pair of black arm guards, bandages around his legs and and a light-coloured obi with a dark line running through it.

_'Tekka Uchiha...' _Tekka had shoulder-length, dull-black hair and dark eyes and also had a dot in the center of his forehead. He wore a black, high collared shirt with the Uchiha crest on the back and dark-colored pants.

_'..Iyu Uchiha.._' Iyu Uchiha had dark, shortly trimmed black hair and dark eyes. Iyu wore a dark long-sleeved shirt bearing the Uchiha crest, with white pants. Which were protected by his jonin vest, he was the largest of the bunch.

Sasuke loathed them all, he noticed their Sharingan eyes burning holes into Itachi's still form.

_'What's their deal?'_

"Gentleman, to what do I owe this pleasure of your visit. If you are looking for my father then he is not home at the moment."

Itachi notified the man with his default reserved manner of speech, giving no hint of emotion regarding fear or anxiety as he spoke. Sasuke hid a smirk as he silently applauded the cool attitude his brother could put on to throw people off his true intentions, he was a true example of a shinobi. Deceptive.

Iyu Uchiha stepped forward, he was noticeably larger than the surrounding men yet he seemed the most anxious. He shook his head as he spoke with begrudging respect for the anbu captain, "We aren't here for your father, we are here to ask you some questions about Shisui Uchiha. He's dead."

Sasuke nearly choked on his spit as he heard such an absurd statement, Shisui's death was the most unlikely thing he could have ever heard. Sasuke knew about Shisui of the Body Flicker, he acknowledged that Shisui was just as skilled as Itachi and hoped to surpass them both. Though his relationship with the famed genjutsu user of the clan was strained due to Shisui constantly avoiding Sasuke when Itachi was not there to accompany him, it hurt the young raven but soon he got over it.

"Dead? That is troubling news, but what does that have to do with me Iyu?"

In response Iyu wordlessly reached into his flak jacket and pulled out a worn-out piece of yellow paper, which he unballed and tossed unceremoniously to Itachi. The anbu captain stared at the paper before looking back at the Uchiha men who stood before him, "Sasuke go inside the house."

Itachi ordered Sasuke calmly while maintaining his sights on the fellow shinobi that stood in a group, all radiating a chilling wave of chakra in hopes of scaring Sasuke off. Surprisingly Sasuke turned a vigilante eye to the group of police officers and looked back at Itachi, before he nodded in understanding and departed through the open sliding paper screens.

"Alright, if you say so."

Sasuke feigned the completion of Itachi's command, he stood just beside the entry into the living room. Allowing him to remain unseen but he could still hear and see a great deal of what was going on. Observing his brother's reclining head, he noticed Itachi was reading the paper that Iyu had given him.

Itachi abruptly closed the yellow sheet of paper and returned his gaze to the hostile crowd of men, "A suicide note, huh? Sad to see the stress of being a shinobi finally caught up to him. I considered him to be a true brother, such disturbing news on a peaceful day." Itachi shook his head in disapproval, while the officers glared at him. Though Itachi seemed unaffected by their attitudes and acted casually.

Iyu shook his head in disbelief, "Shisui was a feared and respected shinobi in our ranks, and held a great sense of duty to protecting the clan. I seems unlikely that he would just throw away his values and leave everything he fought for."

Itachi spoke calculatingly and reserved, giving no hint to his growing aggression."You assume because of appearances and preconceptions that he wasn't a crumbling sentinel. Now you have his suicide note yet you question me, I assume you believe I had something to do with this?"

Iyu nodded as Inabi Uchiha stepped forth and pointed at the note Itachi held, "Through extensive analyzing and researching the writing habits of Shisui, we established that this note is indeed Shisui's handwriting."

Tekka spoke up, "But for those who posses the Sharingan, forging someone's handwriting is an elementary task."

Itachi nodded in understanding, "And you believe I killed Shisui and wrote this note to make the murder look like a successful suicide attempt ."

The surrounding Uchiha Police Officers nodded in agreement when Iyu reached behind his back to reveal a pair of chakra-sealing handcuffs, beckoning to Itachi he smirked a bit. "Come quietly with us for further questioning, if you are innocent then you have nothing to worry about."

Sasuke stared slack-jawed at the events he witnessed, not only was Shisui dead but the police force believed Itachi was the culprit. Sasuke immediately felt a sense of brotherly instinct come over him, he wasn't going to allow them to take Itachi without a fight but was halted at what followed. A series of cries and strikes broke the silence that followed Iyu's command, as Itachi moved in such a swift succession Sasuke swore that the men were incapacitated by mere shadows.

_'Woah!'_

Itachi stood over the defeated group of officers as he breathed softly from the fatigue the act required, "As I warned early, it is not wise to judge others... based on appearances. For example you assumed... that I was patient enough to withstand your barrage of silent accusations ...before I lashed out."

Sasuke sat back shaking lightly as he felt his brother's cold killing intent flood the area, _'I've never seen him like this.. he scares me..'_

"Unlike the rest of you, I do not measure my self-worth by the clan. You use the clan as your crutch and limit yourselves from greater advancement, I bested you all now because I don't rely on my bloodline. Truly patheic-"

"Stop, Itachi!"

Both children of Fugaku Uchiha froze in place at his sudden arrival, Sasuke too preoccupied by the intense situation that erupted from a casual question and Itachi caught up in his actions, failed to notice their father. His gaze fierce and piercing but he walked calmly to his normally pacifist elder son, "Stop this Itachi, it isn't you. This isn't my child."

Itachi turned a glare upon his father, he revealed a kunai which he held in defense against the clan head. Fugaku continued his waltz toward his estranged son while he put up his hands in a defensive manner, but still calm and reserved. Sasuke watched in silent anticipation as he felt the urge to stop his brother before things became much worse, "You gonna' kill me Itachi, are you going to take that tool and strike me down."

Itachi remained in his defensive state while he glared at his approaching father, who made no attempt to protect himself from the weapon. Itachi's features hardened into a look of irritation before he spoke once more, "I'm just carrying out my duty.."

Fugaku puzzled by the statement as he now stood just a few inches from the poised kunai, "What do you-"

The clan head was interrupted when Itachi suddenly acted in a succession of quick movements, Sasuke freaked out as he watched the weapon move in an untraceable pattern. He willed his body to move, and he ran. Fugaku stared in shock as he noticed Sasuke running toward Itachi with a desperate look in his eyes, sensing danger Fugaku tried to disarm Itachi.

To no avail Itachi thrusts his left arm and released the kunai, a resounding crack could be heard throughout the area as the steel weapon pierced the stone wall just to their left. Perfectly hitting the insignia of the Uchiha clan, and violating it with his unrestrained wraith. Just as the weapon was out of Itachi's hold, Sasuke jumped his brother and latched onto him in a strong embrace. Hoping to prevent his brother from creating greater chaos among the family, he cried softly into Itachi's long-sleeved black shirt.

"Please Itachi stop this! Just stop.. I don't want to see you hurt anyone. I don't want to see you hurt!"

Itachi froze in place for he had to restrain himself from breaking down with Sasuke, this mission was hurting the very things he cared for before the task was even implemented. Complying to his sibling's plead he allowed the regrouped squad of Uchiha officers to handcuff him, they seemed a bit at ease to see the prodigy restrained.

"Interrogate him by the common methods, he is my son, but he will receive no special treatment. Is that understood?" Fugaku spoke stoically as if the events that had just occurred did not bother him in the least bit, the officers nodded and walked Itachi away.

Sasuke watched as he leaned against the door, he hoped Itachi would be alright. There was no doubt in his mind Itachi was innocent of the charges, he simply reacted so strongly from the pain he felt for being accused. It was completely logical, but yet again a small part of him questioned whether Itachi really did kill Shisui.

Before further thought could be created, Sasuke felt the large hands of his father grasp his shoulders and squeeze in a comforting way. Sasuke caught the confliction that his father harbored through his stormy eyes, he was having his doubts as well.

"Father, do you really believe that Itachi killed Shisui?" Sasuke stared up at his grim father who seemed even older, due to all the accumulated stress the man had been subjected to recently.

"I don't know Sasuke, but whether he did or didn't. It is an issue that must be addressed professionally, even if he is the heir of the clan and my son. He still is not more important than the well-being of the entire clan." Fugaku turned his back to the child as he entered their home, the sun was setting now and the sky was dark with streaks of orange and yellow. He needed some rest from the troubles of today, Fugaku regarded Sasuke once more before leaving.

"Sasuke, I want you to grow into a wonderful man and a true shinobi one day. I know that you emulate your brother and me, but don't be like us."

Sasuke was stunned at his father's words before the clan head finished his point, "Be better, better than we ever could be. Goodnight son."

And with that final statement, Fugaku climbed the long array of stairs leading to his lonely bedroom. Leaving a bewildered Sasuke to soak up and replay all the events that had occurred today. This week had proven to be the most eventful in terms of change and advancement, things were constantly changing but if he didn't have his family around what was the point of accepting change.

"I can't wait for this week to be over, just one more day stands between me and my dream. I will be ready, and I will not fail you guys.. I promise."

Sasuke stared whimsically at the retreating form of the golden sun, it burned its brightest against the darkness that dared to plot against it. Yet it was eventually completely overwhelmed by the growing darkness, now painting the sky a dark shade with a bit of bright stars twinkling across the sky. They would herald the return of the golden sun which would battle back the retreating night when it's time came. A starts its reign for the day, a temporary establishment.

Sasuke stretched his arms as a yawn escaped his lips, it had been a troublesome day. It was time he got some rest as well, he had a big day of training to get through before the week ended.

"Hn," Sasuke regarded the outside world once more before he entered his home.

_'My light will be eternal, my strength will be unmatched, my dedication will be unmovable. I will burn brighter than the rising sun!'_

* * *

**_Taijen Here!_**

**_Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of T.O.E Reloaded. I thoroughly enjoy writing this story and apologize to any followers that I do not update periodically but rather every once in a while. My goal is to have uploaded a total of four more chapters to this fic before the summer ends, I appreciate those who patiently wait for my updates. And ask that you guys continue to stick in there, things will start to pick up soon. A lot of foreshadowing I know but hey its makes the chapters more interesting, and leave you wanting more. So hang in there folks, also I will try to update_****_ chapter 3 of A Few Steps Back. Fun fact this is offically my longest chapter yet! Hope the read wasn't too long._**

**_Word Count : 17,962_**

**_(1). Konohamaru is totally remodeled in comprasion to the canon, I always liked his character and felt he would be a great additon to the fic. In T.O.E he is much older and only year behind Sasuke's class, but a praised prodigy._**

**_(2). Can anyone guess what weapon I am referring to?, it will play a critical role in Sasuke's development in strength in the future._**

**_(3). This technique will be a signature jutsu of my Sasuke, similar to the canon Sasuke's use of Grand Fireball jutsu or Naruto's Shadow Clone._**

**_Character_****_ Statistics (As of now) :_**

**_Akiyu Uchiha ( Ninjutsu : 4/ Taijutsu : 3.5/ Genjutsu: 1 / Speed : 3 / Strength: 3/ Intelligence : 4 / Stamina : 3 / Hand Seals : 2.5) Total : 24_**

**_Itachi Uchiha ( Ninjutsu : 4.5 / Taijutsu : 3.5 / Genjutsu: 3.5/ Speed : 4 / Strength: 3 / Intelligence : 4 / Stamina : 3 / Hand Seals : 3) Total : 28.5_**

**_Sasuke Uchiha ( Ninjutsu : 3 / Taijutsu : 2 / Genjutsu: .5 / Speed : 2 / Strength: 2/ Intelligence : 1 / Stamina : 4 / Hand Seals : 1) Total : 15.5_**

**_Iyu Uchiha ( Ninjutsu : 3.5 / Taijutsu : 3 / Genjutsu: 3 / Speed : 4 / Strength: 4.5 / Intelligence : 3 / Stamina : 3 / Hand Seals : 3) Total : 27_**

**_Konohamaru Sarutobi ( Ninjutsu : 3.5 / Taijutsu : 2 / Genjutsu: 1 / Speed : 2 / Strength: 2 / Intelligence : 1 / Stamina : 3 / Hand Seals : 2) Total : 16.5_**

**_Asuma Sarutobi ( Ninjutsu : 5/ Taijutsu : 5 / Genjutsu: 3 / Speed : 4 / Strength: 3.5 / Intelligence : 3 / Stamina : 3.5 / Hand Seals : 3.5) Total : 30.5_**


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